Grim future
In recent years the Mali government
has been diverting water from the
River Niger at the Markala barrage
just upstream of the delta, to irrigate
desert fields of thirsty crops such
as rice and cotton. These diversions
have cut the area of delta flooded
About the author
health to social breakdown and
international migration are complex.
Wetland loss is certainly not the
only reason for the human exodus
from the Sahel. And migration is a
long-standing coping strategy for
people living in a region of extreme
climate variability.
But the parlous state of the
wetlands of the Sahel is changing
the region. In the past, wetlands
were refuges in times of drought
or conflict. They were safe, and
the water persisted even in the
worst droughts. But today, with
their waters diminished, these
wetlands have become sources
of outmigration. Now, migrations
that were once temporary and
local are becoming permanent
and intercontinental. u
annually by up to 7%, says Zwarts,
causing declines in forests, fisheries,
and grazing grasses. Some people
have left the delta as a result, though
it is unclear whether they have been
among the Malians regularly reported
to be in migrant boats heading from
Libya to Italy.
But this trickle of people from the
delta could soon become a flood.
In July this year, Mali’s upstream
neighbour, Guinea, announced the
go-ahead for Chinese firms to build
a giant new hydroelectric dam, the
Fomi Dam, in the river’s headwaters.
Construction could begin as soon
as December.
The Fomi Dam’s operation will
replace the annual flood pulse that
sustains the wetland’s fecundity with
a more regular flow that the Mali
government intends to tap for a long-
planned tripling of its irrigation along
the river. Wetlands International
estimates that the combined impact
of the dam and irrigation schemes
could cut fish catches and pastures
in the delta by 30%.
“Less water flowing into the delta
means a lower flood level and a
smaller flood extent,” says Karounga
Keïta of Wetlands International in Mali.
“This will have a direct impact on food
production, including fish, livestock,
and floating rice.” He fears that the
inevitable outcome will be further
human migrations from the wetland.
The links in the chain from water
management through wetland
Fred Pearce is a freelance
author and journalist based
in the UK. He is a contributing
writer for Yale Environment 360
and is the author of numerous
books, including The land
grabbers, Earth then and now:
Potent visual evidence of
our changing world, and The
climate files: The battle for the
truth about global warming.
still mostly think of dams as
infrastructure development that
furthers economic activity and
wealth – and partly because many
environmental groups concentrate
on the ecological impacts of dried
wetlands, while ignoring the human.
In this climate of ignorance, more
wetlands are under threat. The
next victim is likely to be the Inner
Niger Delta, a wetland in northern
Mali that covers an area the size
of Belgium. The delta forms where
West Africa’s largest river, the
Niger, spreads out across flat desert
near the ancient city of Timbuktu.
The delta is a magnet for
migrating European water birds. It
is also currently one of the most
productive areas in one of the
w o r l d ’s p o o r e s t c o u n t r i e s . I t
provides 80% of Mali’s fish, and
pasture for 60% of the country’s
cattle, and it delivers 8% of Mali’s
GDP and sustains 2 million people,
14% of the population, says Dutch
hydrologist Leo Zwarts. Its fish are
exported across West Africa from
Mopti, a market town on the shores
of the delta.
contributor
As many as a million
Nigerians have lost
livelihoods because
of dams that once fed
a wetland that flowed
into Lake Chad.
The Markala Barrage in Mali, which diverts water from the
River Niger for irrigating crops such as rice and cotton.
Water Sewage & Effluent November/December 2017
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