The return of the water - IUCN

Foreword
This book tells the story of times past, when wetlands were considered as wastelands and decisionmakers
and managers were unaware of their benefits, a time when the adverse impacts of hydropower
and irrigation schemes on ecosystems and people downstream seemed unimportant. This story has
a happier ending in these more enlightened times when wetland ecosystems are viewed as essential
elements in integrated river basin planning, which draws upon the most appropriate modern science
and traditional knowledge. The hero of the story is one of the best-known floodplains of the Sahel
- the Waza Logone floodplain in the Extreme-North Province of Cameroon. This book tells of the
partial restoration of the wetland using lessons from the floodplain’s history to partially correct
earlier mistakes.
The Logone River in Cameroon is typical of many rivers in Africa. In the dry season, it may almost
cease to flow, whereas during the wet season (August-September), with an average flow rate of
1,800 m3/sec, it may overflow its banks. Before the 1980s, when seasonal floods were unimpeded
by engineering works, a vast area on the left bank, encompassing a substantial part of Waza National
Park, was temporally flooded most years. Fishers, farmers and nomadic pastoralists used the floodplain,
following the annual flood pattern in a well-established sequence which allowed all users to benefit
from the inundated land before, during, and after the wet season. Thousands of elephants and giraffes,
and a huge population of antelopes, roamed the floodplain in and around Waza National Park,
providing a significant source of tourism-related income for local people and the government.
However, in the late 1970s, a 30 km long dam was built to create a 400 km 2 reservoir (Lake Maga)
needed for a series of rice projects (SEMRY 1 and SEMRY 2). This dam and the many kilometres
of embankments on the left bank of the Logone River deprived the Waza Logone floodplain of much
of its natural flood water and, therefore, of its ecological potential. From 1981until the mid-1990s,
this sharp reduction in flooding led to major environmental degradation and severe social upheaval
over an area covering 800,000 hectares downstream of Lake Maga.
These dramatic changes had a serious impact on the many people who relied on the natural resources
for their livelihoods. Income dropped due to smaller fish catches, reduced arable land available for
floating rice or sorghum growing and for flood recession farming, and also because fuel wood, fruits,
medicines and tradable products such as Arabic gum, were less plentiful. Dry season grazing lands
for cattle and wildlife were also greatly reduced. Thus, the sudden and nearly total alteration of the
water regime over several tens of thousands of hectares of floodplain had an immediate impact on
ecosystem functions and services, resulting in large-scale emigration of local people, cattle and
wildlife to other areas.
In response to the droughts which affected the Sahel in the 1960s and 1970s, many countries opted
for large-scale, intensive irrigation schemes to meet their food security needs and to provide export
opportunities. Unfortunately, until the early 1990s, these schemes were premised on overly optimistic
economic forecasts and, even worse, implemented without any assessment of their impacts on
downstream ecosystems and livelihoods. Today, a wealth of evidence demonstrates that, in many
instances, these engineering projects (SEMRY being one of them) have not delivered the food
increases anticipated during pre-commissioning phases. It has therefore become apparent that full
floodplain conversion to irrigated agriculture is economically risky because the traditional farming,
herding and fishing activities which such projects replace require no capital investments and often
generate higher and more regular (and thus safer) returns per unit of water used.
From 1990-2003, the Government of Cameroon and IUCN - The World Conservation Union, with
the support of the Government of the Netherlands, SEMRY, the provincial, local and traditional
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