In the face of growing water stress and increasing concerns over the sustainability of water use, Tanzania has, in common with many other countries in Africa, focused largely on the development of more integrated catchment-wide approaches to water management. In the Great Ruaha River Basin, considerable effort has gone into increasing water productivity and the promotion of mechanisms for more efficient allocation of water resources. Over a period of five years, the RIPARWIN project investigated water management in the basin and evaluated the effectiveness of some of the mechanisms that have been introduced. The study findings are relevant to basins in developing countries where there is competition for water and irrigation is one of the main uses.
To identify interventions which reduce health risks of consumers where highly polluted irrigation water is used to irrigate vegetables in West Africa, scientists worked over 5 years with farmers, market traders and street food vendors in Ghana. The most promising low-cost interventions with high adoption potential were analyzed for their ability to reduce common levels of pathogens (counts of fecal coliforms and helminth eggs). The analysis showed the combination potential of various interventions, especially on-farm and during vegetable washing in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The tested market-based interventions were important to prevent new or additional contamination.
In Burkina Faso, at least 1,700 small reservoirs have been constructed, most of them during the last 30 years. Numerous and scattered, these beneficial multipurpose systems combine productive with domestic water uses. However, their environmental and health impacts remain insufficiently documented. This report combines data from different sources into syntheses and national maps, with a focus on water-related diseases. The mitigation of negative impacts requires an integrated approach to specifically identify the enhancing and limiting factors that influence environmental impacts and the transmission of diseases around reservoirs. Public awareness campaigns need to accompany the promotion of preventive and curative measures and the development of alternative water sources for domestic supply.
Water protection, food production and ecosystem health are worldwide issues. Changes in the global water cycle are affecting human well-being in many places, while widespread land and ecosystem degradation, driven by poor agricultural practices, is seriously limiting food production. Understanding the links between ecosystems, water, and food production is important to the health of all three, and sustainably managing these connections is becoming increasingly necessary. This book shows how sustainable ecosystems, especially agroecosystems, are essential for water management and food production.
The Volta River Basin (VRB) is an important transboundary basin in West Africa that covers approximately 410,000 square kilometres across six countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo. Its natural resources sustain the livelihoods of its population and contribute to economic development. This book provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary review and assessment of the issues and challenges faced. The authors provide a science-based assessment of current and future scenarios of water availability, the demands of key sectors, including agriculture and hydropower, and the environment under changing demographic, economic, social and climatic conditions. They also identify solutions and strategies that will allow available water resources to be sustainably used to improve agricultural productivity, food security and economic growth in the VRB. Overall, the work examines from a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder perspective the solutions and strategies to improve the use of water and other natural resources in the VRB to achieve enhanced food security, livelihoods and economic growth.
The book provides a comprehensive overview of the hydrology of the Nile River, especially the ecohydrological degradation and challenges the basin is facing, the impact of climate change on water availability and the transboundary water management issues. The book includes analysis and approaches that will help provide different insights into the hydrology of this complex basin, which covers 11 countries and is home to over 300 million people. The need for water-sharing agreements that reflect the current situations of riparian countries and are based on equitable water- sharing principles is stressed in many chapters. This book explores water resource availability and quality and their trends in the basin, soil erosion and watershed degradation at different scales, water and health, land use and climate change impact, transboundary issues and water management, dams, reservoirs and lakes. The link between watershed and river water quantity and quality is discussed pointing out the importance of watershed protection for better water resource management, water accessibility, institutional set-up and policy, water demand and management. The book also presents the water sharing sticking points in relation to historical treaties and the emerging water demands of the upstream riparian countries. The need for collaboration and identification of common ground to resolve the transboundary water management issues and secure a win-win is also indicated.
Irrigation has been and will continue to be an agricultural and rural investment priority. Development of the irrigation sector faces multiple challenges, including water scarcity and degradation, competition over shared resources, and the impact of climate change. Innovations are needed to address these challenges, as well as emerging needs, and to promote productive, equitable and sustainable water management. These guidelines, produced by an inter-agency team, highlight experiences and lessons learned from global irrigation investment operations. They introduce innovative approaches, tools and references, and provide practical guidance on how to incorporate or apply them at each stage of the investment project cycle. The guidelines will be a useful resource for national and international professionals involved in irrigation investment operations.