Free Flow

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ransboundary

ater

anagement

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 gath-

ering 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 ulti-

mate recipients of various development programmes.

A study for the identification and characteriza-

tion 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 organiza-

tions on the basin scale to discuss issues of common

interest with the states and partners. Several resolu-

tions of the NBA Council of Ministers eventually led

to the establishment of a regional coordination of the

Niger Basin users, based on nine national coordina-

tion processes.

Charter. NBA’s major challenge is to accelerate and support the

building and coordinated management of large hydraulic struc-

tures 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.

The International Commission of the Congo-Ubangi-Sangha

Basin (CICOS), established in 1999, expanded its mission to inte-

grated water resource management (IWRM) in 2007, in addition to

its original mandate focusing on the promotion of inland naviga-

tion. 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.

Among the stakeholders in basin management we can distin-

guish the public sector (government administration, public

agencies, local communities and authorities) on the one hand and

other stakeholders on the other: civil society (associations, non-

governmental 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