West Africa hopes new hydropower dams will cut poverty, climate risk

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: West African states in the Niger River Basin are seeking to tackle climate risks and reduce poverty by constructing three hydropower dams in the next five years. In late November, the Council of Ministers of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), meeting in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, endorsed an environmental and climate action plan for sustainable management of the scenic basin and its rich natural resources, which have come under threat from climate change.

The projects include a 102 megawatt (MW) hydropower dam at Fomi in Guinea, a 25 MW hydropower plant in Toussa, Mali, and the 565 MW Kandadji dam in Niger. These aim to boost hydro-electricity and irrigation, reduce desertification and flooding, and improve economic activities across the region.

“The West African region is facing urgent problems of food security, rural poverty and climate change that demand answers in the form of investment and infrastructure. We need to give a push to these three multi-purpose hydropower dam projects as a sustainable solution that involves the region’s largest river,” NBA executive secretary Collins Ihekire said in a statement at the Yaounde gathering.

The NBA is the coordinating body for the 4,200 km-long (2,600-mile) Niger River, bringing together the governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

The NBA also agreed to rehabilitate three hydropower plants at Kainji, Jebda and Lagdo, as well as multiple run-of-river hydropower stations, optimise water storage, set up irrigation schemes for an additional 1 million hectares (2.5 million hectares) of land, and increase hydropower production to 1,000 gigawatt hours per day.

“Integrating future climate change adaptation and mitigation into our development action plan will enable...sustainable management of our water resources, to better the livelihood of the over 106 million population in the area,” said Emmanuel Nganou Djoumesi, Cameroon’s minister of the economy, planning and regional development, at the closing of the Yaounde meeting....

The Niger River from space

African Development Bank renews support of climate change resilience with additional resources from Least Developed Countries Fund

AllAfrica.com via the African Development Bank: The African Development Bank, renewed its support for climate change resilience in Madagascar, Benin and Angola in accessing US $17.8 million of adaptation finance in the form of grants from the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) during the second quarter of 2013. It follows the approval last March of US $18.6 million for three water and sanitation projects.

Madagascar will receive US $6.2 million to promote climate change adaptation by ensuring (a) that agricultural water infrastructure planned with African Development Fund support is modified so as to be resilient in the face of climate change; (b) that the vulnerability of the agriculture catchment to cyclones and flooding is reduced, and (c) that local agricultural livelihoods are adapted to climate change through water management and health interventions.

Benin will receive US $7.2 million to allow flood control and climate resilience of agriculture infrastructures in Oueme Valley. Under this project, flooding risk mapping and climate resilient agriculture infrastructures like dykes will be promoted along with flood resistant grain storage systems.

Angola will receive US $4.4 million to increase the scope of the four pilot demonstration centres to climate change technology for sustainable development.

The Council of the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), hosted under the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has approved financing totaling US $17.8 million for three agriculture and natural resource management projects. These projects aim at increasing the adaptation capacities of three African countries....

West Africa experts tested on their disaster response skills

George Fominyen in AlertNet: Picture the scene: terrified, hungry crowds go on the rampage, attacking cars belonging to humanitarian organisations, storming warehouses to steal food and fuel supplies. As a government what do you do? How, when and where do you deploy security forces to restore some order to your streets? How do you coordinate civilian and military players to provide emergency relief?

Those were some the questions facing disaster management officials from the West African countries of Benin, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal, who took part in a recent simulation exercise aimed at testing the effectiveness of their decision-making. Run by the World Food Programme (WFP), the simulation exercise was held in Senegal's capital, Dakar, and involved responding to a hypothetical influenza pandemic.

West Africa is more used to dealing with natural disasters such as seasonal flooding, so how did their officials do? "We realised that we still had to improve on a lot of things in the area of coordination," Eugene Hountondji, the head of safety and civil protection training in Benin's interior ministry, told AlertNet. The officials were told to imagine a high death rate and the disruption a severe pandemic would cause a society, compared with the relatively localised problems of flooding....

A 2005 flood in Dakar, shot by MyriamLouviot, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Coping with climate change in Ghana

Evelyn Tagbo in Business Day online (Nigeria): … Keta in Volta Region of Ghana is a coastal town very close to Aflao, the last town on Ghana's border with Togo. For the many Nigerians that visit the country by road, Keta is the first face of Ghana they see. Along the narrow road leading through Keta and Anloga, another neighbouring town, are a number of dilapidated ancient European-style buildings that tell a lot about the areas' past.

…Dan Dotse, a scientist whom the reporter met at the Afloa border, however, believes that the regular flooding in the area which Francis, blames on the voodoo priestess might not really be her making. He blames the situation on climate change. "The people of Keta and its environs are some of the worst victims of climate change in Ghana. Many of them have been rendered homeless by such floods and many others are still very much at risk," he says.

…According to experts, Ghana's northern and Volta regions are more prone to climate devastation than other parts of the country. The frequency of droughts and floods is increasing in both areas. While both trends are damaging to livelihoods, floods are especially problematic, as they destroy productive infrastructure. Being a poor settlement, some of the homes destroyed by the floods, cost their owners their entire life savings. Little wonder the agony that comes with such losses.

….Thousands of coastal dwellers in West Africa like the Ketans, are already feeling the impacts of climate change. This is resulting in significant economic and human losses and hindering efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in these areas. In September 2008, rising sea levels destroyed hundreds of homes, hotels, roads and harvests, in Cotonou, Benin's capital.

…Even without climate change, agriculture in Nigeria, Benin Republic and other West African countries face serious challenges - land degradation, high rainfall variability, lack of storage infrastructure, inadequate irrigation systems, and a relatively stagnant contribution to economic growth….

A view of the beach from St. George's castle in Ghana, shot by Stig Nygaard, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Cholera fears in Benin's flooded city of Cotonou

BBC: Benin has not experienced such severe flooding for 47 years - when the rising waters were blamed on the traditional voodoo deities that many people in this small West African nation still worship. Some 680,000 people have been affected by the floods - and more than a quarter of the country has been under water since mid-September.

… "It is true that the flood has taken a huge toll on human and livestock casualties - apart from displacing great number of residents, but I do not believe that the gods are to blame," says Dr Adeyinka Adebayo. He has been helping with Cotonou's cholera outbreak, which has so far killed 60 people - although the official records only reflect those who died in hospitals. "I would rather say that it is a result of global warming which we have been hearing about for some time."

…This week, the government appealed again for aid, saying it needed $46m (£28.5m) as thousands of homes have been demolished, more than 80,000 head of livestock have been lost and many crops have been ruined. The UN refugee agency's Angele Dikongue-Atangana says so far about 20,000 tents have been distributed to the estimated 200,000 people who have been displaced - and more tents are being sent out daily….

Tens of thousands left homeless in Benin floods

Terra Daily via AFP: Worsening floods in the West African nation of Benin have destroyed 55,000 homes, killed tens of thousands of livestock and created a new cholera risk, the United Nations said Monday. Rainfall has poured down in the West African nation since mid-September. More than 300 people have been killed this rainy season in western and central Africa and at least 680,000 people in Benin alone have been affected by the floods.

A UN statement said the Niger River was rising "worsening the situation". About 200,000 people are in need of shelter, with over 55,000 homes totally destroyed, 128,000 hectares (316,000 acres) of crops ruined, and 81,000 livestock dead, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The World Food Programme (WFP) and aid groups CARE and Caritas have distributed food to thousands of homeless. "Food is one of the most important needs," said Moumini Ouedraogo of the WFP. "Many people lost their crops because of the devastating floods -- if we do not intervene in time, the consequences could be serious."…

A fishing village on the banks of the Niger River in Benin, shot by Nerijp, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

UN aid for flood-stricken Benin

AllAfrica.com via UN News: The United Nations is mobilizing aid to Benin, where nearly 700,000 people have been affected by severe flooding, with the world body and its partners shortly set to launch a humanitarian appeal to help the flood-stricken in the West African nation. According to latest assessments, some 680,000 people in 55 of Benin's 77 municipalities have been affected by the flooding.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that water, food and emergency shelter are among the priority needs in flooded areas. Cholera cases have been reported in some areas, with fears that the epidemic will spread.

OCHAwater, food and emergency shelter are among the priority needs in flooded areas. noted that food is being distributed in flood-hit parts of Benin and that several new emergency shelter sites have been identified. The Office has also allocated an emergency cash grant for tents and to support logistics operations, with a humanitarian appeal for funds to help flood victims under way.

For its part, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will airlift supplies, including tents, from its emergency stockpiles in Copenhagen to Benin in the coming days. The agency focuses on helping the 7,300 refugees and asylum-seekers in the country, but "we have been called upon to help with the emergency shelter needs of some of the homeless people in the southern parts of the country where we have a presence," agency spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva today….

A river and flood plain in Benin, shot by ~Pyb, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Tackling Benin's flooding

AllAfrica.com via the Vanguard (Nigeria): Two heavy downpours, a Saturday evening, a month ago, brought Benin City to a standstill…Each time it rains, the busiest road in Edo State transforms into a water trough until hours later, or days after, depending on the intensity of the rain.

Before the construction of the Benin Bypass, Lagos Street bore all the heavy traffic from the East, Niger Delta, North, and Western Nigeria through Benin City. The place of Benin City as a road transport hub reflects in the large number of transportation companies owned by Benin-based business people. If not for the bypass, the rain of the day in question would have grounded movement in all direction for hours.

It is one of the mysteries of Nigeria that in its 46 years as the capital of the Mid-Western Region, Mid-Western State, Bendel State and much later, Edo State, Benin City, has degenerated in the quality of its infrastructure, while newer state capitals without its pedigree flaunt better roads and municipal services.

Of particular note is the neglect of the trunk road that goes through it which is also one of the most flooded parts of the city. Partly, because of this neglect, Benin City has joined the unenviable club of erosion-prone areas of the state and country at large. Lack of drainage forces excessive amount of water to seep into the ground and soften it for erosion….

Seen on the Ring Road in Benin City, shot by Jaymz Height-Field, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation