MATERIALS AND METHODS Study Area: The River Niger Basin The River Niger as the principal river of West Africa extends over an area measuring 2500 miles (4000 km). It is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo river and the most important in West Africa. The basin's catchments area entirely situated between latitudes 4 and 17 North meridian 12 West and meridian 15 covers a total surface area of nearly 1,471,000 km2 shared among nine countries.  Fig. 1 Map of the Study Area  Fig. 2.1 Classified image of Landsat TM, May 20, 1986 The River Niger takes its course from the Fouta D Jallon mountains in Guinea at an Altitude of about 800m and flows North East towards the fringes of the Sahara which it reaches after having traversed its own delta, a vast spreading of 89,000km2 that dissipates an appreciable portion of its potential hydraulic by absorption and evaporation. At the fringe of the Sahara, the River Niger turns back forming a great bend flowing South East towards the Gulf of Guinea which it reaches after being joined by the its largest tributary, the Benue, which brings the great River into contact with the heavy equatorial rainfalls. The Benue River, flows west from Cameroon and joins the Niger at the city of Lokoja in Nigeria. From this confluence, the River flows, North Southward and empties its waters into the Atlantic Ocean through the numerous branches of its Delta. Each year the River supplies the Atlantic Ocean with 180 billion cubic meters of water.  Fig. 2.2 Classified image of Landsat TM, June 19, 2000 The River Niger and its tributaries boosts of enormous biodiversity made up of mammals and numerous species of birds, plant resources, natural sites and parks. The inland delta is internationally considered as one of the most important wetlands of the planet and an exceptional biotope of the in the Sahel zone. The extensive wetland ecosystems of the inland delta in Mali and the Atlantic Delta in Nigeria have been identified as important centers of biodiversity in the Niger River Basin (Bourn 1992). However, oil industry and agricultural developments in the Atlantic Delta region are increasing the pace of environmental change in the region. Because the Niger River stands as the lifeline of West Africa supporting rich and varied biodiversity, the basin's fresh water wetlands remain highly productive and supportive of millions of resident and migratory birds in the area. The river basin links together the three World Wildlife Federation priority ecoregions. The population living in the basin estimated at 100 million inhabitants with the Nigerian side of the basin being the most populous. The growth of the population reaches 3% per year with a relatively larger density more than other riparian regions. The region has high susceptibility to climatic hazards and had been affected serious droughts specifically those of 1963-1973, 1982-1985, and 1990-1991 during which Niger Basin Authority (NBA) member nations experienced starvation. Each drought period heightened desertification, over population, inadequate cropping practices, overgrazing, soil erosion and deforestation (NBA 2006). The persistent drought and desertification since the 1970s, makes navigation and fishing impossible during certain periods of the year. Between 1985 through 1990, the river essentially stopped flowing in Niamey, the capital of Niger. Because of continuous drop in its quantity, climate change and water experts estimate that the volume of the Niger has shrank by one- third over the past thirty years alone. In the face of shrinking water supply, competing land use practice involving irrigation and the expansion of cultivable areas with water thirsty crops at the expense of fallow lands at pastoral zones often constitutes the source of conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in the area. In the Urban areas, residues from industrial and domestic activities seep into the river without prior processing and generally through open channels. For example in the Malian capital of Bamako located on the Bank of the Niger River, nearly all the cities commercial and residential effluents drain into the river untreated. By the time the river water gets to Burkina Faso, the waters are highly polluted and certainly unsafe to drink. With the current pace of water table shrinkage caused by yearly decrease in rainfall, pollutants have become increasingly concentrated in the river. In these circumstances river fishing becomes highly vulnerable. Considering all the potentialities, the various environmental challenges and the capacities of member states, it became necessary in 1964 to create an organization to oversee an equitable management of thee resources (Davis 2003). The authority of the River Niger Basin authority now extends to ensuring the integrated development of the basin, including the use of surface and ground water. However, the Niger basin authority has been unable to formulate a viable master plan. Part of the defects stems from the continuous accumulation of action plans with implementation. Furthermore, member nations have most often disagreed over the fiscal requirements of equal financial contribution. Chad with just only 80,000 basin inhabitants believes it should pay less than Nigeria with more than 60 million inhabitants along the basin. The disagreement over financial contribution worsened with the economic downturn that hit the region in 1994, during which most members ceased to honor their financial obligation to the basin's authority. Only recently, has the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) proposed a financial plan among member states to strengthen the basin's institutional capacity. Even if these restructuring plans by UNEP may ultimately redress the basin's long standing institutional capacity in financial and infrastructural resources, it is uncertain whether such plans will be able to resolve imbalances in size and power among member states or strengthen regional cooperation when casual conflict breaks out (Milich 1998). Considering the projected water demands in the area the region faces a daunting task in meeting the needs of competing users. Table: Results of the classified 1986 and 2000 images
Notwithstanding these challenges, the analysis of water politics is in the region is essential as the Niger Basin nations embark upon international management of shared waters as a preamble for sustainable development and equity. Accordingly, transboundary water resource use as conceptualized in hydropolitics join all the countries sharing the Niger basin into a network of mutual dependencies in which no nation can get out from. The economic and environmental complexities inherent in the hydropolitical network binding these nations can be improved by drawing from the current advances in geo spatial information systems in the West Africa sub region. Methods Used The first step involves the identification of the variables needed to assess environmental change at regional level. The variables consist of socioeconomic and environmental information, including amount of cropland, human settlement, water bodies, forest and population. This process continued with the design of data matrices for the variables covering the various periods from 1986 and 2000 and beyond. In addition, to the design stage, access to databases and abstracts that are presently available within the Federal archives in Nigeria, The United States Geological Survey Department, online images from the University of Maryland website and host of other organizations helped facilitate the search process. The spatial data acquired from NASA consists of two Satellite images covering the Niger Delta area of Nigeria for the separate periods of 1986 and 2000 while the data for Niger and Mali for the periods of 1987 and 2000 came from the University of Maryland free online images. Table: Results of the classified 1986 and 2000 images
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