Free Flow

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ransboundary

ater

anagement

One major challenge, in terms of scale, of a large transbound-

ary 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 representa-

tives’ 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 manage-

ment 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 differ-

ent 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 organiza-

tion to achieve active participation (associated to decision making)

and not a mere consultation.

In the Niger River Basin, representatives of users’ regional coor-

dination 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 stake-

holders, is based on a rich bibliography of studies on the one hand

and, on the other, on meetings organized with the water stakehold-

ers 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 work-

shops 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 institution

• drafting 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 experi-

ences 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 initia-

tives, to analyse the results.”

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.