Climate Change

Climate change is an on going topic of discussion , and the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris is soon approaching . Africa is no exception to this and the effects of climate change seem to be more severe for Africa when compared to the rest of the world.

The paper by Marisa Goulden , Declan Conway and Aurelie Persechino entitled , ' Adaption to climate change in international river basins in Africa, discusses the current knowledge we have  of the potential impacts of climate change on water resources in Africa and the possible limits, barriers or opportunities for adaption to climate change in internationally shared river basins.

Management of the potential affects is also further challenged by the transboundary nature of river basins .

The paper uses a climate model that projects warmer conditions ranging from +3.2celcius (East Africa), +3.6 (Sahara) by 2080. Nearly all models project wetter conditions in West and East Africa , and drier conditions in southern Africa and Sahara.

To adapt to climate change the paper discusses looking at a supply and demand side . The suuply side adaptions that are mentioned are; exploiting groundwater, increasing storage in reservoirs , desalination of seawater, rainwater harvesting and water transfers between river basins.(Kundzeqwicz et al 2007)

The demand side adaptions include improvement of water use efficiency and recycling of water, reduction of demand for irrigation by changing crops or cultivation practices, reduction of demand by importing agricultural products, sustainable water use practices, use of water markets to re allocate water between uses, and use of economic incentives such as metering an pricing.(Kundzeqwicz et al 2007)
 

Different Ethnic Groups Involved In ' Black Tuesday'

This post is to just explain the different ethnic groups that existed and were players in the ' black Friday' incident and the conflict that occurred between Mauritania and Senegal .


The Haalpulaar population-  this population exist in the Northern Senegal Valley and speak the language of Pulaar which has close to 4 million native speakers worldwide. They are typically farmers and raise livestock , a cultural lifestyle that is typical of this area. According to John V. Magistro they are a ' cultural melange of black Sub-Saharan agropastoralists ' (Magistro 1993). There is also a different culture of farmers in this area , however a little more South . They are often ' subsumed within the ethnic category of the Haalpulaar population ' (Magistro 1993:203) however there is a difference. They are the Fulbe herders which are a semi-nomadic population of herders residing in an area called Ferlo.

The Haratin- The Haratin population are ' freed slaves' of black Sub Saharan decent who make up around 40% of the Mauritania population  . The term free is used loosely here because they are often still slaves and have masters , this is an ongoing problem that faces the country of Mauritania. The Haratin population speak Hassaniya , a Mauritania Arab dialect (Magistro 1993). The Haratin death squards were behind the terrible executions of at least 200 black africans on ' black Tuesday ' however this was under the supervision of a higher-class ethnic group called the Bidan .

The Bidan - The Bidan population was first described by Stewart (1973:8) as the ' white race' . he however later discovered that the Bidan population often married the black Sub-Saharan Africans and so the term did not really refer to a colour classification but rather a social status .

References

Magistro J (1993) Crossing over: ethnicity and transboundary conflict in the Senegal river valley. Cah d’Etud Afr 130/XXXIII-2:201 – 232

Stewart,C.C (1973) Islam and Social Order in Mauritania . A Case Study from the 19th Century (Oxford : Clarendon Press).

'Black Tuesday' - The Ethnic tension in the Senegal River Valley

This post looks at a specific day which was named ' Black Tuesday ' surrounding the conflict that has occurred in the Senegal River Valley between Senegal and Mauritania. Initially when i wrote the post entitle , ' The Manantali dam conflicts' I had no idea how brutal and ethnically motivated the conflicts were . However through extensive reading of peer reviewed literature I have read about the atrocities that occurred at the Senegal River basin , specifically between Mauritania and Senegal .

April 20th , 1989 is when a clash occurred between black Haalpilaar fishers and black Haratin Maures that resulted in two deaths. This occurred on the Northern boundary of Senegal . Several days later terrible executions and mutilations of innocent people from Mauritania and Senegal occurred and this caught the eye of critics of political relations between the two countries . This black on black conflict as described by Magistro in 1993, is what set off more deadly events between the two countries.

Late April saw shops destroyed and terrible acts of violence. Then during ' Black Tuesday ' in Nouakchott (capital city of Mauritania) 200 black africans were killed by the black haratin who were under the supervision of the white bidan patrons. The events and violence is best described by a quote in the West African  news magazine : Jeune Afrique : ' In Dakar , in Nouakchott as in the principle cities of the two countries, the scenes of pillage and of vandalism had been , everywhere , accompanied by acts of incredible savagery :mutilated bodies , heads cut off , women disemboweled , children throats slit , etc. ' (Diallo 1989:26)

As you can see the violence which occurred was terrible and it was motivated by ethnic tensions thats exist between the countries . It wasn't a case of black vs white but the ethnic differences that exist . In my next post i will go into more detail as to what the different names such as Haratin and Bidan refer to in terms of there ethnic position .

References :

Diallo, S. 1989 ' Mauritanie-Senegal: apres le cauchemar' . Jeune Afrique, 17 mai . N0 1480: 26-29

Magistro J (1993) Crossing over: ethnicity and transboundary conflict in the Senegal river valley. Cah d’Etud Afr 130/XXXIII-2:201 – 232 

Senegal River Basin

This post is a continuation on my previous post entitled the Manantali Dam conflict . The Manantali Dam is located on the Bafing river which is in the Senegal river basin . The Senegal river basin has a total drainage area of around 350,000 km2 , it had three main tributaries which are Bafin , Bakoye and Faleme (Rasmussen et al 1999). The rainfall varies across the basin and is characterised by a north- south gradient , with the highest rainfall towards the source area of the basin which is a highland area called Fouta Djalon ( up to 2000mm/ year). The lowest rainfall is towards the North of the basin .

The Manantali Dam controls around 50% of the river discharge on the Bafin tributary and has caused much conflict . However this is not the only conflict that has been occurring at the Senegal river basin . Transnational river basins often cause conflict and controversy , the majority of this comes down to a conflict of interest in the way in which the basin is managed .

In terms of managing the Senegal river basin the Organisation pour le Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Senegal (OMVS) was established and the main aim was to decide on water allocation and management principles . It has to be noted that Mali, Mauritania and Senegal are members of the OMVS however Guinee is not . Two major projects were proposed which would change the principles of management within the river basin. The first was the planned installation of HEP genarators at the Manantali Dam by the year 2000 . The second was the ' fossil Valleys Project ' which involves diverting water from the Senegal river into a fossil valley.

The second project caused conflict between Mauritania and Senegal , as it involved one phase that would benefit Senegal more favourably than Mauritania . It involved reallocating water at the expense of river discharge and thus irrigation potential in the main river valley that is shared by the two countries. ( Rasmussen et al 1999)http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00167223.1999.10649423

' Virtual Water'

This blog post is only a short introduction into the term ' virtual water' that is used in academic literature on the topic of transboundary water .

The term was first coined at a seminar at SOAS in 1993 . Before 1993 the term embedded waster was used however it did not capture much attention . During the mid 1980's Israeli economists discussed the idea that from an economic perspective it was not sensible to export scarce Israeli water . They argued this is what was occurring overtime they exported avocados and oranges that were water intensive . So following on from this the term virtual water is the hidden flow of water that is used to transport food or other commodities from one country to another(or on a smaller scale , within a country). Virtual water overall links water, food and trade.

In an article by S.Merrett, J.A.Allan and C. Lant they use the example of producing grain. To produce one ton of grain it requires around 1,000 cubic metres of water. If this grain is exported to another country that has a shortage of water or soil water then the receiving country is spared the economics and the stress of mobilising 1,000 cubic metres of water. By the millennium the Middle East and Africa were importing at least 50 million tons of grain annually . This required 50 cubic kilometres of water to produce it which is the volume of freshwater that flows into Egypt each year down the Nile.

https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/371343/mod_page/content/7/Reading_list/allan_2003.pdf

The real driving force

This post is a short summary of the driving forces behind water laws that are made regarding African transboundary water resources. This was inspired by the article entitled , ' driving forces behind African transboundary water law : internal , external , and implications ' by Jonathan Lautze , Mark Giordano and Maelis Borghese. 

  The internal drivers that are discussed within this article are numbered in terms of how common they are. The most common internal factor that drives post-colonial water laws within African river basins is something called ‘ joint management ‘. The concept of joint management is that nations who share the water source come to an agreement on a set of principles or structures that help to manage the water source.  The second most common is water development, which is the use of the water source for the purpose of hydroelectric power or irrigation purposes, usually through the construction of dams. The other two internal drivers for transboundary water laws in Africa are environmental sustainability and water allocation. Environmental sustainability is becoming more of a driving factor when laws are being made due to climate change.  The external drivers of water laws are as follows; A country or region’s geostrategic importance, global trends in water resources management and development, religious or cultural affiliation and international concern with transboundary waters.  Just one example of an external driver relating to cultural affiliation is within the Senegal River basin. The article uses  four examples within Africa which are the Nile, the Senegal, The Niger and the Volta.