Rivers Part One: River Basin Management

 

The Short-FALLS of African Rivers  

Rivers are perhaps the clearest way of linking water and development. Rivers offer a source of water for irrigation, fishing grounds as well as a supply of nutrient-rich silts which are essential for agricultural activities (Bohannon, 2010).  The potential of rivers for development in Africa is demonstrated in the history books, through the development of "hydraulic civilisations" (Wittfogel 1957) such as the ancient Egyptians.

Rivers in Africa share the main benefit of rivers everywhere- they take water from places with a lot of water to places where there is less. However, one difference with Africa’s rivers unlike others elsewhere, such as the Rhine, is that many of Africa’s comprise of huge waterfalls and unnavigable rapids. This not only prevented historic contact between regions and subsequently stunted the trade of goods (i.e. food), but a less tangible ramification of this was that it prevented the exchange of information and technology, evidenced by the absence of an African equivalent to the Lingua Franca (Marshall, 2016).

The Necessity for Management 

Millions rely on rivers for their survival, such as with Egypt’s entire population being concentrated in just 8% of the country’s geographic area, mostly along the river Nile (UNICEF, 2017). Rivers must be managed effectively, to ensure a sustainable future for populations such as this, which demands an appreciation for the water resources themselves, the human dimension of rivers and the spatial and temporal scales of resources and hydrological processes (Savenjie and Van Der Zaag, 2008).

It was this train of thought in the run-up to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio 1992 that led to the proposal for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). The groundwork for the eventual establishment of “The Fresh Water Chapter” (chapter 18) of Agenda 21 at Rio was largely in response to the Dublin principles, which identified the high degree of fragmentation in the water sector, and on the international stage (Savenije and Van der Zaag, 2008). To accommodate the implementation of IWRM principles, the Global Water Council (GWC) and World Water Council (WWC) were established to oversee the process (Savenije and Van der Zaag, 2008). This however, was not an overnight process.  

Development of River Basin Management In Nigeria

 

Nigeria established its River Basin Authorities which were in 1973 in accordance with a number of dam and irrigation projects and appeared to be a comprehensive framework for integrated reiver basin development (Adams, 1985). The first failure of the RBDAs in Nigeria was in its overlap with other government agencies for control over a river basin unit, such as electricity and agriculture. This produced conflict and an overlap in research and planning, which translates into a waste of resources (Adams, 1985). Fahiran (1980) suggests that in order to prevent mismanagement, a single informed entity should make decisions based on a series of trade-offs between the different users of a river. This would also see a concentration of scarce-skilled manpower resources which is typical of a developing nation (carter et al., cited in; Adams, 1985)

A second issue was the mismanagement of fund allocation for projects based on political agendas, where the federal government invested heavily in states that supported political oppositions in the past, which also saw 9/11 RDBA boundaries drawn along political lines, as opposed to rational geographic ones (Adams, 1985). Whilst this refers more to individual examples of government than IWRM, it has still persisted as a barrier to the full adoption of IWRM in many African states, and is thus a hurdle that must be overcome to ensure suture prosperity.

Integrated Water Resources Management thus marks a synthesis of both natural and human needs of water and advocates the integration of the respective objectives of both following a rigorous analysis of thorough, relevant and continually updated data. This in turn requires coordinated administrative action in a transparent manner.

However, there is much more to consider than this. The inescapable power-dynamic that exists in all rivers is that upstream users have the capacity to heavily impact downstream users, but not the other way around introduces an exciting dynamic (Savenjie and Van der Zaag, 2008). Although countries situated on transboundary river basins are subject to the principles of the UN watercourse Convention, which establishes the rights of riparian countries to an equitable share of river benefits and a concomitant duty not to harm other users, this is not so certain in reality (Savenjie and Van der Zaag, 2008). More on this in the next post. 


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