The 3rd International Forum on Water and Food, an international assembly of water and food scientists working on food and water issues in the developing world, received exciting news late last month when the XIV World Water Congress released a report unequivocally stating there is "is clearly sufficient water to sustain food, energy, industrial and environmental needs during the 21st century."
Issued by the Water International (Volume 35, Issue 5 and Volume 36, Issue 1), the paper conducted a study of water resources in the Major River Basins of Asia, Africa and Latin America, focusing on the efficiency of water use. Among its conclusions, for example, was the finding that African farmers use roughly 4% of available water.
The official determination the developing nations struggle due to inadequate access to water resources as opposed to a scarcity of water, supports the underpinning principal of current projects by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF).
CGIAR Water and food: Field Visits to Bangladesh, May, 2011.
The report from the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) of the CGIAR finds that the “sleeping giant” of water challenges is not scarcity, but the inefficient use and inequitable distribution of the massive amounts of water that flow through the breadbaskets of key river basins such as the Nile, Ganges, Andes, Yellow, Niger and Volta.
“Water scarcity is not affecting our ability to grow enough food today,” said Alain Vidal, director of the CPWF. “Yes, there is scarcity in certain areas, but our findings show that the problem overall is a failure to make efficient and fair use of the water available in these river basins. This is ultimately a political challenge, not a resource concern.”
“Huge volumes of rainwater are lost or never used,” he added, “particularly in the rain-fed regions of sub-Saharan Africa. With modest improvements, we can generate two to three times more food than we are producing today.
The 10 river basins included in the study - the Andes and São Francisco in South America; the Limpopo, Niger, Nile and Volta basins in Africa; and the Indus-Ganges, Karkheh, Mekong, and Yellow in Asia - were selected because they "embody the full measure of water-related challenges in the developing world," says Vidal. CPWF research investigates ways to improve interactions between policy and government with the goal of improving water management to reduce poverty and improve living standards for the largest numbers of people.
Together, the ten basins occupy 13.5 million square kilometers and are defined by water flowing from high ground to streams to feed major river systems. One and a half billion people, 470 million of the world's poorest, eek out livelihoods in these regions. The basins exemplify "the full measure of water-related challenges in the developing world," says Vidal.
A flow chart from CGIAR Challange on Water ANd Food IFWF1
In anticipation the November 14-17 symposium, to be held in Tshwane, South Africa, CGIAR is preparing a series of articles to explain the complexities of their work in a series of Basin Challenges.
The first article, cross posted below, focuses on the CGIAR challenge in the Volta Basin of Burkina Faso and Ghana, which is tasked to find ways to adequately use the existing 1700 small reservoirs in the region to equally address diverse needs for water in the region.
Innovation Platforms Address Water Security in Burkina Faso & Ghana
By
Deborah Phelan
“Improve rainwater and small reservoir management to contribute to poverty reduction, and improved livelihoods resilience and people’s well-being in the dry lands of Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana while taking account of implications for downstream water users, including ecosystem services.”- Volta Basin Development Challenge
The six West African countries in the Volta Basin — Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote d´Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Benin — are among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable in terms of access to adequate water resources. The problem is exacerbated by two additional stressors: a growing industrial sector with increasing demands to share water resources for hydropower generation and surface and ground water shortages resulting from longer dry seasons.
Add endemic poverty, a growing population and environmental degradation to the mix and you have a complex set of challenges to address.
Fail to listen to the wisdom and tap into the capacities of the local community and any program you design is sure to fail.
Incorporating these factors into its planning, The Volta Basin Development Challenge (VBDC) selected northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso as pilot sites to launch an “Innovation Platform”of key participants in crop-livestock value chains. In essence, the challenge is to create a balanced team in which local farmers, livestock owners and tradesmen work on equal footing with technical agents, researchers, and NGOs involved in rural credit in the multiple steps involved in marketing their products.
Identifying Rainwater Management Strategies (RMS) and methods to improve water productivity at the farm level to increase crop and livestock productivity is a core part of the project.
Innovation Platforms
Innovation Platforms (IPs) are a form of a public-private partnership of groups and individuals who are motivated by diverse reasons and challenges to participate in a collaborative effort and find solutions that are mutually beneficial.
The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food’s IP involves diverse stakeholders in the design and implementation of an integrated management approach for equitable use of water resources. From the onset, the focus was on tapping into local knowledge, ensuring farmers and livestock holders understood their value to the success of the project, and creating knowledge sharing experiences that equally championed the skills and acumen of all participants.
White Volta Basin Map: Ghana
Northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso, which occupy the most territory in the Basin, are mixed-crop livestock agro-ecosystems, whose water needs are largely dependent on 1,700 small reservoirs. The reservoirs, originally constructed as watering holes for cattle, currently support irrigation, aquaculture and domestic water supply (for washing purposes only). Their maintenance is crucial to the success of small-scale farmers, who rely on this water as a ‘buffer’ during the increasing number and length of dry periods.
Numerous factors contributed to the failure of previous attempts to ensure adequate access to water resources in both countries: lack of adequate infrastructure to maintain reservoirs and other water sources; uncertainties regarding control of the water sources; and a failure to engage small-scale farmers and livestock owners in identifying and implementing solutions.
In this IP, farmers, livestock keepers and tradesmen teamed up with financial institutions, input suppliers and public technical agents to design a multi-use system of integrated management of available water sources.
In November 2010, a baseline study was conducted in eight communities in each participating region. The survey involved examining the current crop-livestock systems and rainwater management practices, inventorying available natural resources, identifying the important local business people and institutions, and evaluating market access. The IP then identified the challenges and strengths of the crop-livestock systems and strategized on ways to grow markets.
The success of the VBDC will be measured by how effective community-level institutions are in fairly managing and maintaining water resources, specifically small reservoirs, for multiple uses. Additionally, links between local and regional institutions will be strong and effective in replacing older, poorly managed reservoirs.
Cross Posted from CGIAR Challenge on Water and Food IWF3: Innovation Platforms Address Water Security in Burkina Faso & Ghana
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