Large dams and small people: management of an African river
As on many rivers in the tropical developing world, dams constructed on the Senegal River--or rather,
conventional dam management strategies--threaten not only the riverine environment but also the human
rights and economic productivity of the hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, fishers, and herders
whose livelihoods depend on the annual flooding of valley bottom lands. Although much of the river
flows through a Sahelian area with low rainfall, the annual flood makes possible dense populations of
human and animals, and sustains a rich and biologically diverse ecosystem. Smallholders lived in a
sustainable relationship with their environment. They farmed sandy uplands during the brief rainy season,
and then cultivated the clay plains as floodwaters receded to the main channel of the river. Livestock also
profited by feeding first on rainfed pastures in the uplands and then on flood-recession pastures on the
plains. Fish were so abundant that as many as 30,000 tonnes were caught yearly. Since the early 1970s,
small irrigated rice schemes have added a fifth element to the range of production: rainfed farming,
recession farming, herding, fishing, and irrigation.
The completion of two dams will stop the annual flood. The dams were planned under the mistaken
impression that floods are incompatible with hydropower. They are the Diama salt intrusion barrage near
the mouth of the river between Senegal and Mauritania, and the Manantali high dam more than 1,000
kilometres upstream in Mali. This intervention will have such adverse effects on the environment that
rather than insulating the people from the ravages of drought, the dams will accelerate desertification and
intensify food insecurity. Anticipation of donor investments in huge irrigation schemes has led to the
expulsion from their floodplain lands of non Arabic-speaking black Mauritanians. These people now live
in refugee camps on the Senegalese side of the valley.
This is the recurrent tragedy of much dam construction: large numbers of politically powerless people
suffer in order that the urban and industrial sectors may enjoy electricity at a reduced cost. The tragedy is
not only recurrent, it is often unnecessary.
Research in the Senegal Valley by anthropologists, hydrologists, agronomists and others points to two
firm conclusions: the value of floodplain production has been vastly underestimated, and the water-storage
requirements of hydropower and irrigation have been vastly exaggerated. It is, in short, entirely feasible to
manage the dams with an annual controlled release, an 'artificial flood'. This would assure satisfaction of
both urban-industrial and rural demands for the river's water, and would support groundwater recharge,
reforestation, and biodiversity.
Because of this research, the Senegalese government ended its opposition to an artificial flood, and its
development plans for the region are now predicated on the flood's permanence. As of late 1993, the
other members of the three-country consortium managing the dams--Mali and Mauritania--remain
committed to the original scenario, although there is some reason for optimism about the ultimate
outcome.
This 29-minute video is a production of the Institute for Development Anthropology. The video was
written and directed by Michael M. Horowitz, and is available in Pulaar and French (with English
narration and dubbing). The video can be purchased for non-commercial showing in 1/2 'NTSC format
for $175 (and in 1/2' PAL or SECAM format for $200). Prices are net prices, and payment must
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Contact: Institute for Development Anthropology, 99 Collier Street, P.O. Box 2207,
Binghamton, New York 13902-2207, USA.