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France promises $11 m for regulating Niger river flow

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President Jacques Chirac of France has announced 10 million euros (about US $11 million) of French aid for a project to improve the management of water resources in the Niger river basin at the start of a four-day visit to West Africa. Chirac said in a speech on Wednesday night, shortly after his arrival in Niamey, the capital of Niger, that France was also willing to host a donors meeting to raise more money for managing water resources in the Niger basin. Chirac said France planned to be "a driving force" in international efforts to develop the Niger river, on which the lives of several million Africans depend. The Niger rises in the Fouta Djallon hills of northern Guinea and flows north through Mali to the southern edge of the Sahara desert, before swinging south through Niger and Nigeria to empty into the Gulf of Guinea. Water levels in the river are exceptionally high at present following heavy rains throughout the Sahel. However, chronic drought in the region over the past 30 years has reduced the average volume of water in the river by a third. This has led to a lowering of the water table in nearby croplands and disrupted the free flow of the 4,200 km long river, creating vast pools covered by water hyacinths. These reduce the oxygen content of the water, limiting the fauna and flora that can live there. During the severe droughts of 1985 and 1990, the Niger virtually stopped flowing in Niamey. The countries through which the river passes have formed the Niger Basin Authority to improve their management of the water resources which it provides. Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Cameroon are also members of the organisation, which is based in Niamey. Niger's Minister of the Environment and Water Resources, Adamou Namata, said his government had already begun to build dykes to regulate the speed of water flow in the river bed and encourage a rise in the water table on each bank. On Thursday, Chirac was due to visit rural development projects at Tahoua, a town 350 km of Niamey, before flying on to Mali on Friday. Niger and Mali are both former French colonies and are among the poorest countries in the world. Both are heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture and have been hard hit by an increasingly dry climate and the southward march of the Sahara desert.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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