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Home , Guinea, Senegal, Senegal River

IUCN Water Programme

SHARE Toolkit: Case Studies

Integrated management of the

By Madiodio Niasse

1. Origin and Background

The is 1,800 kilometres long. It originates from the Futa Jallon Highlands in and empties in the in Saint-Louis in Senegal. Its basin covers an of 300,000 square kilometres, hosts 2,700,000 inhabitants and crosses four countries: Guinea, , , and Senegal.

Most of the Senegal basin is located in the Sahelian and desert zone. Its average rainfall is 550 mm per year, but varies from about 1,500 mm per year in the to less than 200 mm in the northern part of the basin in Mauritania. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Senegal basin as the rest of the region experiences severe and chronic rainfall deficits. The average annual rainfall in the Sahel region declined by 30 percent since the early 1970s compared to the 1940-1969 period. Similarly, the average river discharge declined by more than 50 percent. and chronic deficits in river discharge are also marked by frequent food shortages and famine.

The first basin-level attempt to create a coordinating body for the Senegal river basin dates back to 1963 when the newly independent states of Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal established the Senegal River Inter-State Committee (Comité Inter-Etats pour le Développement du Bassin du Sénégal) which served as a vehicle for commissioning the key preliminary studies for major water development interventions needed in the basin.

In 1968 the four basin States established the Organization of the Riparian States of the Senegal River (Organisation des Etats Riverains du bassin du fleuve Sénégal - OERS). OERS can be rather described as a political response to the call for -African unity, as it was then seen as a step toward that continental goal. OERS member States expressed willingness to cooperative but failed to assign clear objectives for the organisations. OERS could not survive the political rivalries between its member States, especially Guinea and Senegal.

In 1972 three of the riparian countries —Mali, Mauritania and Senegal—established OMVS (the Senegal River Basin Development Organisation) with the mandate of controlling the river water resources in order to promote and hence make member countries less vulnerable to rainfall deficits. The scope of OMVS is to promote the coordinated exploitation of the Senegal River basin resources in order to increase sustainably the income of basin inhabitants, to decrease the vulnerability of the economies of members States to climate variability, and to accelerate economic and inter-state cooperation.

2. Legal Frameworks for Trans-boundary Management

In 1972, three of the basin countries (Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal) created the Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal — OMVS). Its mandate is to promote the coordinated exploitation of the Senegal River basin resources in order to increase sustainably the income of basin inhabitants, to decrease the vulnerability of the economies of members States to climate variability, and to accelerate economic and inter-state cooperation.

In addition to the 1972 Convention establishing OMVS, the following conventions constitute the legal foundations for transboundary cooperation in the Senegal River:

• The 1972 Convention on the Status of the Senegal River: this convention declares the Senegal River an international water course. This convention guarantees free navigability of the river and ensures equity in access to the river’s water resources among riparian countries. The Convention implies also that any intervention that could affect in a significant manner the hydrological regime of the river, its navigability, the condition of its exploitation for agro-industrial purposes, and its ecological characteristics requires the approval of riparian States.

Because the three basin countries envisaged as part of the OMVS mandate and objectives to initiative joint investments, the question of the status of common assets needed to be clarified. This led to the adoption of the

• Convention on the Legal Status of Common Infrastructures, 1978. This Convention clarifies the criteria needed to be fulfilled for a given infrastructure to be considered a Common Asset, and the rights and obligations of the co-owners and the modalities of management of these common properties.

In 2002 a Water Charter (probably the first of its kind in ) was adopted among OMVS member States. This Charter can be seen as a commitment to a shared vision for sustainable development of the river basin. The Charter embodies all key emerging principles on equity, IWRM and on the need to protect the environment. For example there are provisions on water allocations in the Charters that require the dams in the basins to be managed so as to guarantee what we could consider an ‘environmental flow’ whenever the annual hydro-climatic condition permit. For example, the Charter requires the to generate releases to create an annual flood to respond to needs of recession agricultural and of the ecology of the floodplain.

Today all OMVS member States recognise that the portion of their located in the Senegal Basin is governed primarily by agreed OMVS conventions when it comes to water resources management. For example the recently (2005) adopted Mauritanian Water Code refer to the OMVS Water Charter for the management of all its water resources located in the Senegal river basin.

3. Institutions for Trans-boundary Management

The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal — OMVS) was established by convention in 1972. In its institutional set up, the highest management body is the Conference of Heads of State and Government. This body deals with the broad political issues, as well as key issues pertaining to inter-State cooperation and strategic development choices. The Council of Ministers exercises oversight roles and can be seen as the steering committee of the programme. The Councils of Ministers is composed of one (generally hydraulics) from each of the member states. The High Commissariat is responsible for the implementation of decisions made by the Council of Ministers.

With regards to the staffing in the High Commissariat, the rule is that the senior positions of and of Secretary General be reserved for nationals of member countries other than Senegal, which is justified by the fact the OMVS headquarters are in Dalar, Senegal. Other top-level positions (Technical Director, Legal Advsor, Director of SOGEM, Director of SOGED) are distributed equitably between member countries. An effort is made to keep the same balance for the allocation of all professional staff positions although they are in general open for competition.

An innovative body within the OMVS organisational set up is the Permanent Commission for Water (Commission Permanente des Eaux —CPE). CPE is an advisory body composed of representatives of member states (generally government senior experts). CPE is in charge of defining the principles and modalities of water allocation between the various sectors.

OMVS has also established structures at the national and local level. At each of the riparian countries, a National Coordination Committee (or Cellule Nationale de Coordination — CNC) has been created. Each CNC brings together representatives of Ministries involved in or affected by water management in the Senegal River and also representatives of civil society organisations. Each CNC has a Secretariat with permanent staff and logistical equipment provided by OMVS. A Local Coordination Committee (Cellule Locale de Coordination — CLC) is also established at each of the 28 administrative districts in the basin. CNCs and CLCs assist in the implementation of OMVS programmes and projects and are also vehicles that serve for fostering the participation of the public in OMVS activities.

Figure 1 Organisation of OMVS

4. Trans-boundary Management Interventions

OMVS is considered a model river basin organisation both for its innovative and creative institutional set up, for its its performance in promoting peaceful inter-state collaboration, sharing of a transboundary watercourse, and for particular dynamism in mobilizing financial resources for development investments. Today OMVS continues to attract large amounts of financial resources to fund its institutional strengthening as well as environmental, health and economic growth projects.

OMVS has mobilized funding to build two large dams (Diama and Manantali and associated dikes, power equipment and electric lines) for more than USD 1 billion. Recently it secured funding (about USD 120 million) for Felou run-of-the-river dam. Other major projects being implemented or launched include: a) a GEF-Project implemented by the Bank and the UNDP for a funding level of USD 21 million; b) a new project called Project for Integrated Water Resources Management and for Development of Multiple Uses in the Senegal River Basin which mobilizes about USD 240 million over the next 10 years.

5. Mobilizing Funding for Trans-boundary Water Management

The Convention on the modalities for Funding of Common Infrastructures, adopted in 1982, clarifies the mechanisms for sharing costs and benefits of the OMVS programme among member States. The cost and benefit sharing arrangement is to be adjusted periodically. And the current sharing arrangement is as follows:

• Mauritania: 22.60 percent of costs of investments and also of benefits to be generated,

• Senegal: 42.10 percent;

• Mali: 35.30 percent.

State contributions are so far mostly used to finance the administrative and personnel costs of the organisation. The issue of accumulated arrears from member States used to be a serious matter. In recent years, however State contributions are more regular.

In order to finance its development interventions, OMVS can use the following options to mobilise the required financial resources:

• contributions from its member States from their public financial resources;

• loans obtained by members States and made available to OMVS;

• grants from donors;

• loans obtained directly by OMVS with or without a guarantee from member States.

With regards to investments, most of financial resources are secured from loans and grants from donor partners. In this regards, OMVS did relatively well compared to many other river basin organisations in Africa

The Diama and Manantali Dams programme illustrates the funding mechanism used by OMVS. These two dams were built in the 1980s cost a total of about $USD 1 billion. Most of this amount has been obtained through loan at a low interest rate of about 2 percent. The burden of this debt was to be shared among the three member states of OMVS on the pro rata of the benefits that would accrue to each of them, i.e. 35.30 percent for Mali, 22.60 percent for Mauritania and 42.10 percent for Senegal. The benefits anticipated from the programme are distributed as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Benefit Sharing Arrangement between OMVS member States

Irrigation Energy Production Navigation ALL Mali 11,00 52,00 82,00 35,30 Mauritania 31,00 15,00 12,00 22,60 Senegal 58,00 33,00 6,00 42,10 100,00 Total 100,00 100,00 100,00

6. Lessons Learned

OMVS is considered by many as one of the most successful river basin models in Africa. This is true to the extent that the basin organisation managed to set in place a sound legal framework which allows equity in access to benefits to be derived from the development of the Senegal river water resources. As a result, OMVS managed to mobilise substantial amounts of money used for investments on shared major water infrastructures such as dams, dikes, hydropower equipment. OMVS continues to be highly attractive to donors. Where many projects are currently stalled in because of lack of funding, OMVS did not have any difficulty for funding a new dam (the Felou dam).

There are however many challenges that OMVS and the Senegal basin countries face for the future:

• Given the central role of the river for countries like Senegal, Mauritania and Mali (which are Sahelian countries), negotiations on water sharing are often complex, and every new initiative need to ensure equity in access to benefits to be generated. In some occasions, tensions and even disputes occur, as was the case between Senegal and Mauritania in 1989.

• The fact that Guinea finally joined OMVS is excellent news because Guinea, where originated the Senegal river and its major , is a key basin country. But a difficult issue to solve will be to adjust the current cost and benefit sharing agreement so that Guinea will perceive a clear motivation and interest in remaining part of OMVS.

• Some environmental problems (many resulting from the impoundment of the river) facing the basin have the potential of seriously affecting the development of the basin and the living conditions of its inhabitants. So far, a lot of efforts have been made to deal with these impacts, but a lot more needs to be done and the proliferation of typha grass and other weeds and the high prevalence of water-related diseases (schistosomiasis, ) continue to represent real challenges for the future.

IUCN Water Programme