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WATER POLITICS

As reported by Terra Daily, international donors have pledged almost one billion euros to save Africa’s Niger river, which runs across 4,200-kilometres through Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and is the lifeblood for 110 million people. So, in this case, an example of water politics working in the positive.

As the article notes:

“…the money will allow the Niger Basin Authority (ABN), an intergovernmental body grouping the countries irrigated by Africa’s third-longest river, to begin work on the first phase in a 5.5 billion-euro, 20-year rescue plan adopted in April.

An initial five-year project will focus on two main dams — one in Niger and the other in Mali — as well as tree-planting, rehabilitating plains and removing silt from river bed…

…A fall of up to 55 percent in the river’s flow over the past 20 years, mainly due to climate change and growing populations, means drastic action is required to prevent it from ultimately running dry.

Seriously threatened by drought and silting, the additional pressure of industrial waste has spawned an explosion in the oxygen-stifling acquatic hyacinth plant which is strangling the water itself as well as fish stocks….”