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Participation à la gestion des bassins du Niger, du Sénégal et du Congo/en

De Wikibardig

Summary

There are 276 transboundary rivers and lakes and more than 300 aquifers shared by riparian countries around the world. Transboundary basins cover 45 per cent of the world’s lands, linking two or more countries through water resources located above and below the Earth’s surface. Many of the world’s populations and ecosystems therefore depend on water resources crossing national borders. Emerging crises related to population growth, climate change, urbanization, increasing demand for energy and food or regional instability affect water resources management. The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) appreciates how this situation becomes more complex with transboundary waters.


The willingness of states to cooperate regarding water management may derive from specific issues or common goals, regional or community dynamics or a risk of conflict. Establishing transboundary basin organizations broadly fosters cooperation. Whatever the structure model of the organization, it is advisable that mechanisms are planned to promote public and stakeholder participation and supported by methods and means for consulting the people concerned. Such mechanisms are implemented by countries and basin organizations of three major transboundary rivers in Africa: the Niger, Senegal and Congo.

The Niger Basin Authority (NBA), established in 1964 by the nine states sharing the Niger River Basin (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria) led to a shared vision process marked by the adoption in 2008 of an Action Plan for Sustainable Development and a Water Charter. NBA’s major challenge is to accelerate and support the building and coordinated management of large hydraulic structures in the basin.

The Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) was created in 1972. It is an international institution based in Dakar which gathers Guinea Conakry, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal around common goals, including food self-sufficiency for the basin people, economic development of the member states and preservation of the balance of ecosystems in the region. OMVS has adopted a Water Charter and is a globally rare example of joint ownership of large dams.

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The International Commission of the Congo-Ubangi-Sangha Basin (CICOS), established in 1999, expanded its mission to integrated water resource management (IWRM) in 2007, in addition to its original mandate focusing on the promotion of inland navigation. The CICOS member states (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo) cover 83 per cent of the catchment area of the Congo River, the second largest river basin worldwide with 3,822,000 km².

Climate change, transboundary waters and participation
Climate change has already been affecting Africa for decades. In the Sahel, there has been a reduction in rainfall and an increase in intra-seasonal and inter-annual variability since 1970. In the Congo River Basin, the river flow rates tend to decrease in the south and the north of

the basin, leading to disruptions of navigation on the Ubangi River among other things. The situation also generates impacts on groundwater, which are sometimes added to the overexploitation of aquifers, as in the North-Eastern Sahara Aquifer System.

In this context, NBA, OMVS, CICOS and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory have became members of the Global Network of Basins engaged in a process of adaptation to climate change, a network established and jointly managed by INBO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Exchanges between the members of this network show that to facilitate the preparation of climate change adaptation plans to be included in multi-annual basin management plans, and to make effective their derived programmes of measures and action plans, they need to enable the participation of stakeholders through mechanisms to be developed or invented.

OMVS, for example, has established several consultative bodies to support this participation: the Standing Water Commission, a body giving advice to the ministers of the member states; the Basin Committee; the National Coordinating Committees, an interface between national and regional levels; and Local Coordinating Committees established to be closer to users’ and stakeholders’ concerns and interests.

Among the stakeholders in basin management we can distinguish the public sector (government administration, public agencies, local communities and authorities) on the one hand and other stakeholders on the other: civil society (associations, nongovernmental organizations and water users), trade unions and professional organizations. Stakeholders in a transboundary basin belong to different countries but share a common resource, land and heritage, including cultural. This sharing can be expressed through similar activities (agriculture, fishing, etc) or by a single sensitivity to hazards and phenomena, whether natural or not: drought and water scarcity, floods, dam management, pollution, invasive species and so on.

The invitation, which was made by NBA to regional organizations and associations during a workshop gathering the nine basin countries in early 2005, has been the starting point of thinking about the participation of civil society in the shared vision process in the Niger River Basin. The identification of stakeholders and interested parties was a prerequisite. Among non-state stakeholders we can distinguish groups, such as farmers or irrigators’ associations, from unorganized water users, which are the most numerous and often the ultimate recipients of various development programmes.

A study for the identification and characterization of water users in the Niger River Basin was carried out under the coordination of Eau Vive and the International Secretariat for Water. Its outcomes were presented at the first regional forum of basin resources users, held in February 2006 in Fada- Ngourma in Burkina Faso. For the first time, this step allowed the congregation of civil society organizations on the basin scale to discuss issues of common interest with the states and partners. Several resolutions of the NBA Council of Ministers eventually led to the establishment of a regional coordination of the Niger Basin users, based on nine national coordination processes.

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One major challenge, in terms of scale, of a large transboundary river basin like the Niger, Senegal and Congo lies in obtaining true stakeholder representation. The solution proposed in the Niger River Basin was to identify representatives per topic (agriculture, fisheries, water and sanitation, environment, hydropower and so on) while ensuring that each country is represented. The representatives’ legitimacy must also be gained and a democratic process may be initiated for stakeholder groups to choose their representatives. Cultural aspects can offer enabling conditions for participation.

Another difficulty is the need to ascend and descend from the local to the international basin level, through the national level. These processes are facilitated when civil society participation is already acquired in each IWRM (national process). The information flowing up from local communities is then presented per country, with consolidation at the basin level.

In Burkina Faso, the water agencies established in each national sub-basin apply the principles of integrated water resources management and people’s participation. The Nakanbe Water Agency for instance created local water committees. Their third annual forum was held in December 2012 with the participation of the French Loire-Brittany Water Agency, a partner of the Nakanbe agency under decentralized cooperation. In France, users’ participation has been institutionalized and increased through the European Water Framework Directive enacted in 2000.

Transboundary basin organizations are likely to play a significant role in the mechanisms for exchange with civil society on different scales, which may require some changes in their organizational culture. This ultimately means providing ‘seats’ to the people’s representatives in the institutional meetings of the basin organization to achieve active participation (associated to decision making) and not a mere consultation.

In the Niger River Basin, representatives of users’ regional coordination regularly participate in various meetings of NBA bodies. Their representation has been formalized in some bodies such as the Permanent Technical Committee, a new advisory body to the NBA Council of Ministers.

The OMVS Master Plan for Water Development and Management was also drafted in a participatory manner. The assessment validated in 2009, a true knowledge base shared between all stakeholders, is based on a rich bibliography of studies on the one hand and, on the other, on meetings organized with the water stakeholders in each country.

The participatory approach implemented by OMVS has helped to involve people (often illiterate) in the drafting of the Master Plan, a complex and technical document. An informative ‘image box’ guide for people has been developed especially to facilitate the drafting and appropriation of the plan. Radio programmes have also been used and strong support was provided by local facilitators trained by the project team.

The financial resources devoted to civil society participation should be sufficient and can pass through basin organizations. As in the Senegal River Basin, these organizations may provide technical assistance and facilitation, especially for unorganized users, so that stakeholders can familiarize themselves with issues through workshops or specific media. The technical and financial partners can play a catalytic role, as happened in the Niger River Basin through French and Canadian cooperation, joined by German cooperation and the European Union. Continuity in supporting stakeholders’ participation is also required.

The Congo River Basin approach started in 2012 through a project funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Office for Water (IOWater), Eau vive and Solidarité Eau Europe. The activities carried out in early 2013 with CICOS were:

  • meeting with and awareness-raising of the various partners
  • assessing the involvement of non-state stakeholders in the past and future activities of the institutiondrafting a list of the support to provide them
  • identifying the beneficiaries
  • assessing the feasibility, in time and in the Congo Basin, of participation in the development of the
  • CICOS Master Plan.

In all cases, the establishment of water information systems, organized in each riparian country and federated at the large basin level, is a prerequisite to allow a true dialogue between stakeholders and create the conditions for genuine dialogue based on trust between partners.

The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) has drafted a World Pact for Better Basin Management which, on the basis of positive experiences developed worldwide, especially recommends “to organize a dialogue with stakeholders recognized at basin level and ensure their active participation in order to achieve a truly shared vision of the future, to identify the necessary agreements on priorities and the means to mobilize, to coordinate projects and initiatives, to analyse the results.”


This article was written by : Christophe Brachet and Daniel Valensuela, Deputy Secretaries, International Network of Basin Organizations

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