Western Values Challenged Part 2 - the Complex Nature of Basin-wide Management

Last week, I briefly introduced you to the concept of 'floodplains' with a particular example in Hadejia Nguru Wetland, located in northeastern Nigeria. Today, I would like to give a closer insight into how water resources management has been practised in the wetland and the ongoing challenges key to understand. This is the second part of the short series of my blog posts, so, if you haven't read the first part, you might want to have a quick read through my previous post here.


Figure.1. A photo of an inhabitant paddling in the floodplains (Reference: IUCN, 2011).

To recap with some of the basics, the floodplain is located within the Hadejia Nguru River basin where two upstream rivers Hadejia and Jama'are converge into Yobe River that subsequently flows into Lake Chad (Barbier and Thompson, 1998) (Figure.2). It is characterized by its seasonality in flood extent due to a distinct rainfall pattern following the annual ITCZ movement (Taylor, 2004). The recent range is about 70 - 100,000 km2, showing a historical decline from 250 - 300,000km2 of 1960-70s (Adams, 1999). It is attributed to the fact that upstream dam closure took place including Tiga (70s) and Challawa Gorge Dam (90s), two of which now control 80% of water flow of the Hadejia river system (IUCN, 2008). These dams support the Kano River Irrigation Project, the Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project and the Kano City Water Supply (KCWS) to meet the needs of the expanding population in the surrounding cities and towns (IUCN, 2006). It essentially evolved in an increasing sense of 'beneficence' from world development planners in 1950s, without fully understanding the multiple benefits the floodplain brings about. Jama'are River is currently dam free despite Kafin Zaki Dam had once undergone construction until it was halted because of financial constraints (Barbier and Thompson, 1998).


Figure.2. A map showing the Hadejia-Nguru River Basin, also known as the Komadugu-Yobe River Basin. There are five states that politically split the basin (Reference: Blench, 1993).

With regard to their hydrological system, most parts of the basin especially downhill experience water deficit, receiving comparatively less rainfall than potential evaporation through land surface and vegetation. In Yobe, for example, it receives 543mm/a of rainfall whereas annual evaporation rate exceeds 1200mm/a (Bashir, 2008). The implication is that downstream residents almost exclusively rely on surface water of floodplains and groundwater, both of which are intensively fed by the upstream river flows during the rainy season.

Clearly, the consequence goes beyond the freshwater deficit. This includes significant pressure anticipated upon agriculture in floodplains (better known as fadama) and in dry land using the residual soil mositure, fisheries activities and the outbreak of invasive typha grass destroying the existing ecosystems, all of which have a knock-on effect on the livelihoods of people living downstream (Lake Chad Basin GEF Project, 2015). For instance, the fishery in itself produces about 6,000 tonnes of fish in the wetland annually (Barbier et al, 1991). Similarly, economic benefit of agricultural products is estimated to exceed $37,000,000 annually (Barbier et al, 1991). Should it be abandoned through a declining water table following dam closure, a tremendous amount of benefits will be lost such as direct food intake, cash income, cultural/religious nature of fishing activity and loss of migrant birds (Thomas, 1994). Without doubt, you cannot simply go ahead with closing the dams without much consideration into these potential detrimental effects that it can exert in downstream areas.

In an effort to respond to the contentious nature of water resources management, a number of integrated management projects have been undertaken over the last two decades. Historically, the goals of Nigeria's water project are primarily on the following three aspects; 1) provision of urban water supply; 2) generation of hydropower; 3) development of large-scale surface irrigation (Blench, 1993). With the recognition of the need for basin-wide management, however, a number of pilots projects have been conducted to create a platform where various stakeholders come together to express their interests and discuss on what would be the most appropriate solution to their conflicts. Such inclusive approach is vital here essentially because the hydrological boundary is politically split into the five states - Kano, Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe Borno (Figure.2), as well as two development authorities - Hadejia-Jama'are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA) upstream and Chad Basin River Development Authority (CBDA) downstream (Figure.3) (Barbier and Thompson, 1998). Together with the complex nature of the wetlands benefits to local economy and beyond, it is not a choice but a must to include as many stakeholders as possible. The following is the three major examples of integrated water resources management that has taken place over the last few decades.

Figure.2. A map showing political boundaries of two development authorities, HJRBDA and CBDA (Reference: Thompson, GEOG3038 lecture slides, 4th Nov 2015).

1) FGN/IUCN/NCF Komadougou-Yobe Basin Project, also known as KYBP (IUCN, 2006)
This is a joint initiative by the three major institutions established in 2005; the Federal Government of Nigeria; the West Africa Regional Office of IUCN; and Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The aim is to improve the institutional framework for the basin-wide management. You can find the detailed report here.

2) Joint Wetlands Livelihoods (JWL) (Chiroma et al, 2010)
This project is initiated by local communities, local and state authorities to promote community empowerment in order to improve the living of the rural poor highly dependent on the natural resources available in the basin. What is significant about this initiative is that it conducted a stakeholder analysis while providing a forum in which stakeholders come discuss on their issues and concerns.

3) GEF Pilot Project on Integrated Wetlands Management in the Komdougou-Yobe Basin (Lake Chad Basin GEF Project, 2015)
This pilot project places more emphasis on ecological aspects of the basin in order to achieve sustainable use and productivity of fisheries, agroforestry, grazing lands and agriculture. It also provides a specific objective to combat desertification that has taken place across the basin, regardless of it being human-induced or part of a natural cycle.

In the final report of the KYBP, they regard these integrated projects as 'an opportunity to develop and assess novel approaches to helping communities and households overcome the complex water constraints and impediments that impact on all aspects of their livelihoods' (IUCN, 2006). For those of you taking GEOG3038 and attended the last week's role-playing seminar, we had a number of occasion where a win-win strategy seems feasible to implement in order to better manage water resources without jeopartising each other's interest. For instance, upstream irrigation project farmers and authorities can manually discharge stored water in reservoir at the time of high demand for water in downstream essentially for agriculture. It could potentially prevent from downstream residents migrating uphill in sought for freshwater resource, which would have posed a further pressure on their existent resources. Therefore, such multi-stakeholder approach is successful to some extent in the way that it has consolidated a basis for integrated water resources management to reflect needs of as many people as possible.

Nonetheless, there are a number of questions that I would like to raise in respond to the basin-wide projects:

1) How do you define 'who should become involved'?

There are a number of institutions and a minority group of people (e.g. nomadic tribe) whose voices are ignored.

2) How can we quantify the degree of equity among different individuals/stakeholders?

How would you value the benefits of non-monetary products such as ecosystems, and who gains from the conservation? Also, there is an inconsistency in valuing a certain amount of agricultural crops/fishes depending on the proximity to market and relative seasonal scarcity.

3) How can we ensure the needs of small local groups/institutions will be met without their being politically hampered by the elite groups of authorities.

It seems to me that these politically strong stakeholders can easily abuse scientific data (I would rather call it a trick of science) to favour the self, the most educated.

In the next post, I shall try to answer the above questions as well as exploring some other contentious issues related to the integrated water resources management. Any queries or opinions are very welcome! :)

Western Values Challenged Part 1 - Are We More Troublesome Than Climate Change?

When you see the term 'floods', what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Did you instantly think back to some historic devastating floods like in Somerset in England last year? Or perhaps you might have drawn a picture of coastal flooding following a storm event or tsunami. They are all relevant and well-known common examples of floods, which is frequently linked to the onslaught of natural disaster causing loss of life as well as having substantial socio-economic and environmental impacts on the devastated area. Yes, you can get very easily provoked and feel so dreadful by the term.


Figure.1 A photo of Somerset flooding in 2014 (Reference: International Business Times, 2014).

In some parts of the world, however, you will find some people rather enriching their lives through such 'floods' events. Some of you may think of those working for insurance companies or big construction firms...and yes, I think that's absolutely right! But let me stick to the theme of my blog for now. Here, I'm referring to people living in land known as 'floodplain' where it is adjacent to a major river channel and subject to regular flooding. One of the famous floodplains in Africa is in the downstream of the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands in northeastern Nigeria (Adams, 1993).


Figure.2. A photo showing the floodplain in the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands (Reference: Wetlands International, 2015)

The wetlands are fed by the two main upstream rivers known as Hadejia and Jama'are River, which converge to flow into the downstream river called Yobe. (Barbier and Thompson, 1998). It floods extensively between August and September when intensive rainfall occurs as I explained in my previous post.

What is remarkable about floodplains like the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands is that it provides the land with a range of values in local economy, culture and ecosystems. Inhabitants are adapted to practice agriculture using floodwater and the residual soil moisture after it recedes. The fishery is also common towards the end of raining season when fishes are increasingly trapped in ponds that become isolated from a main river channel. Some of their fishing activity is culturally important and frequently linked to local festivals and celebrations in good catch. (Thomas, 1994).

Furthermore, nomadic tribes also bring their livestock in dry season and leave manure rich in nutrients in soil and benefits farmers. Many floodplains also play a vital role in functioning local ecosystems particularly for migratory birds where they feed on insects and fishes abundant in the wetland, and they are mostly registered as the Ramsar Site (Idris, 2008). This complex system of floodplains has long been sustainably managed by local inhabitants.

Figure.3. A map showing the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands (Reference: Sulaiman et al., 2014)

In terms of the scale, the flood extents had historically ranged between 250 - 300,000 ha in 60-70s until 90s when a rapid decline in the extent was recorded as 70-100,000 ha, following two upstream dam closures, the Tiga and Challawa Dam in Hadejia River (Figure.3). The purpose of the dams is mainly for intensive irrigation schemes to support the growing population in cities around the wetlands. Needless to say, such development measures significantly undermine the tremendous values downstream already described above. In essence, those involved in such projects e.g. development agencies view the floodplain as a result of 'wasting water', dismissing the existing socio-economic, cultural and ecological benefits that brings to downstream area. This, I think is a contemporary example of what King Jr. (1967) claims in his speech that 'the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just' (Rethinking Schools. 2001). Who manages the floodplains has merely reflected 'who knows things the best'.

Now, floodplains are becoming dryer, farmers are suffering from falling water levels, which then restrict fish migration for spawning across the floodplains and die off. Less water availability can also have a direct detrimental effect on the health of the people relying on the floodplains for domestic water source. Here, downstream communities suffer from human-derived development projects rather than climate change itself.

Based upon this tragedy of shared water resource, I would like to give a closer insight into how the floodplains in Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands are recently managed and what would be the potential solutions for the conflict. For those taking GEOG3038, this will include my reflection upon tomorrow's role-playing seminar. Any thoughts or questions are very welcome, as always! :)

What is Special about Africa? - The Case of the Southern Africa

Last week, the 16th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium was held in Mauritius, a small main island of the Republic of Mauritius, which is 2,000km off the southeast coast of Africa. It is an annual regional meeting that aims to develop capacity- and partnership-building for international/regional co-operative water management programmes in conjunction with Integrated Water Resources Management (Cap-Net, 2015). The primary purpose of the workshop is to promote interaction among different stakeholders including policy-makers, public and private sectors engaged in water management, academics and cooperating partners in the eastern and southern African region.


Figure.1. A photograph showing the symposium taken place in Mauritius (Reference: Global Water Partnership, 2015)

The event consists of three plenary sessions and seven special sessions, during which 85 oral and 39 poster presentations were made (Global Water Partnership, 2015). What is significant about the symposium is that they indicated the direction of the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) Regional Strategic Action Plan Phase 4 (RASP IV), which was adopted during SADC Multi Sector Water Dialogue in Namibia last September. RASP is basically a five-year action plan, presenting a number of strategic programmes for managing water resources in the region since its first implementation in 1999, and is considered as key pillars of IWRM (Global Water Partnership, 2015). Interested readers are recommended to have a read through the published report here.

Although the outcome of their discussions seemed, at least to me, rather conceptual without much solution-based approach to ongoing/future challenges, I suppose the event itself essentially provided the space for further strengthening their solidarity. As I mentioned in the previous post, such integrated approach is critical in freshwater management because of the nature of water on the Earth. In fact, there are globally 261 transboundary rivers, 63 of which are found in Africa (Wolf et al, 1999). When you compare the maps of the southern Africa showing political and hydrological boundaries (Figure.2 below), you can see the complexity of the challenges these countries are facing.

Figure.2. A map showing both political (black lines) and hydrological (shaded area in colour) boundaries in the southern Africa. (Reference: RSAP 3, 2011)

To recap with some basic hydrological processes I introduced last week, basin refers to the geographical area where water from rainfall, glaciers, groundwater converges and flows towards a particular point (note that it is frequently referred to as 'watershed' in North America). Therefore, water that falls onto any point of each coloured area in Figure.2 above theoretically flows into a common point such as river channels and aquifers. For example, Orange-Senqu (dark green), commonly called Orange River Basin, goes beyond political boundaries of Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa. The basin covers approximately 400,000 km2 (LBPTC, 2010) with the the total length of the primary drainage river exceeding (Orange River) 1,700 km. Their basin-wide mean annual rainfall (MAR) is approximately 530mm/a, which is just below the MAR for here in London in the UK - about 594mm/a (Clima Temps Com). 

'Oh, that means they also enjoy a lot of showering there', you might think. Well, unfortunately, the answer is not what many of you might have expected. Most of the regions within the basin are very dry without much rain across the year. What distinguishes them from London, in fact, is that rainfall is unevenly distributed with much more spatial and temporal variations, causing greater standard deviation of daily/monthly rainfall. The range of MAR within the basin is estimated 200-1,200 mm/a, while much of the rainfall occurs during the rainy season, in southern hemisphere summer. It is associated with the annual movement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). It is a belt of low pressure that migrates north/southwards with the latitudinal shift in the thermal equator (Weatherwise, 2009). The graphs below show monthly climatic records of London and Maseru in Lesotho, located in the eastern part of the basin (Figure.3). It demonstrates that there is a far more seasonal difference in rainfall in Maseru, with almost little rain between January to September compared to intensive rainfall occurring between November and March. 

   

Figure.3. A left graph is a monthly climatic record of London; a right one is of Maseru. Monthly mean temperature is in pink line with highest in red and lowest in blue; rainfall in green column. Note that X-axis adopts different hydrological year, with London starting in January and Maseru in July. In addition, the primary Y-axis represents temperature (℃); the secondary in rainfall (mm)(Reference: Clima Temp, 2015 for London Clima Temp, 2015 for Maseru).

Another critical point to make about the basin's climate is that the evaporation rate is extremely high across the year with the mean annual rate of 1970mm/a, which exceeds the basin's MAR (Boroto and Gorgens, 1999). The implication is that the region is under severe water deficits in most of the time of the year, and perennial flow of rivers is pretty rare. It is estimated that due to extremely high intensity of sunlight and temperature, the African continent as a whole experiences very high evaporation/evapotranspiration rates up to 90% (Balek, 2011). All these meteorological factors being considered, Africa is characterized by regionally distinct climatic systems causing the uneven distribution of freshwater not only spatially but also temporally. 

This nature of Africa's freshwater system has long been in central discussion in performing basin-based management because individual regions and countries perceive freshwater availability very differently. Nonetheless, with the emergence of inter-regional institutions for water resources management like the SADC mentioned earlier, I think that the situation is getting better. People from various backgrounds and social status are increasingly working together to deepen their understanding on the literature, management practices and so on. What now seems challenging to them is how to keep facilitating management while dealing with the intensifying effects of climate change and anticipated pressure on existing freshwater resources from the unprecedented rate of population growth. They cannot simply be given any clear answer by scientific research, rather, they have to make their own, responsible choice of what to do about it. Perhaps, this is a field where politics plays better than science. For any thoughts or questions, please share in comment! :)