Irrigation: Senegal’s Solution to Water and Food Scarcity?
Senegal, located in West Africa, is home to extensive wetlands and lakes as well as four major aquifer systems (Faye et al., 2019). Despite this apparent abundance of water sources, Senegal faces a water crisis. During the dry season, water becomes scarce and Senegal has been unable to effectively tap into its groundwater to increase agricultural irrigation. Predictions indicate a 30-60% increase in water demand by 2035, exacerbating water scarcity and hindering Senegal’s ability to support its growing urban population.
Irrigation is often heralded as Africa’s solution to food scarcity and with only 3-5% of Senegal’s land being cultivated by irrigation, irrigation projects could be the solution to its water and food crisis.
In this blog post, I explore the opportunities and challenges that irrigation presents to Senegal, concluding with my proposed solutions to the nation’s water crisis.
Opportunities of Irrigation
Irrigation offers Senegal the chance to harness its abundant groundwater stores to feed its rapidly growing population. Large-scale irrigation has been successful in Egypt, where the River Nile supports surface water irrigation to cultivate arable land for farming
As a low-income nation unlike Egypt, Senegal can access support for its irrigation projects through loans and infrastructure donations from stakeholders like the African Development Bank and NGOs. In 2003, the African Development Bank aided Senegal’s expansion of irrigation projects with a 7.32 million CFA loan. Many NGOs aiding the development of small-scale irrigation projects in Senegal focus on improving water efficiency and crop productivity for subsistence farmers and women with limited access to land and resources.
Challenges of irrigation
Funding is a major challenge in implementing irrigation projects in Senegal. Costly irrigation projects encourage Senegal’s reliance on loans, which perpetuates Africa’s culture of dependency. Scaling up irrigation projects to maximise food production is also complicated. Historically, large-scale irrigation projects in Africa have failed; researchers have attributed their failure to political reasons. Many African governments are underfunded and lack the institutional capacity to manage large-scale technical projects. Moreover, governments prioritise quantity over cultivating high-value crops, reducing profits and making it difficult to maintain irrigation infrastructure.
Environmental factors also hinder successful irrigation projects in Senegal as during drier seasons, there is insufficient surface water to meet irrigation or potable demand and groundwater which supplies 85% of potable water and industrial uses, is threatened by overuse and pollution.
Proposed Solutions
Figure 1: Senegal is a tropical coastal Africa nation with Dakar as its capital
Irrigation is often heralded as Africa’s solution to food scarcity and with only 3-5% of Senegal’s land being cultivated by irrigation, irrigation projects could be the solution to its water and food crisis.
In this blog post, I explore the opportunities and challenges that irrigation presents to Senegal, concluding with my proposed solutions to the nation’s water crisis.
Opportunities of Irrigation
Irrigation offers Senegal the chance to harness its abundant groundwater stores to feed its rapidly growing population. Large-scale irrigation has been successful in Egypt, where the River Nile supports surface water irrigation to cultivate arable land for farming
As a low-income nation unlike Egypt, Senegal can access support for its irrigation projects through loans and infrastructure donations from stakeholders like the African Development Bank and NGOs. In 2003, the African Development Bank aided Senegal’s expansion of irrigation projects with a 7.32 million CFA loan. Many NGOs aiding the development of small-scale irrigation projects in Senegal focus on improving water efficiency and crop productivity for subsistence farmers and women with limited access to land and resources.
Figure 2: Farmers harvesting rice in Northern Senegal thanks to private irrigation
Funding is a major challenge in implementing irrigation projects in Senegal. Costly irrigation projects encourage Senegal’s reliance on loans, which perpetuates Africa’s culture of dependency. Scaling up irrigation projects to maximise food production is also complicated. Historically, large-scale irrigation projects in Africa have failed; researchers have attributed their failure to political reasons. Many African governments are underfunded and lack the institutional capacity to manage large-scale technical projects. Moreover, governments prioritise quantity over cultivating high-value crops, reducing profits and making it difficult to maintain irrigation infrastructure.
Environmental factors also hinder successful irrigation projects in Senegal as during drier seasons, there is insufficient surface water to meet irrigation or potable demand and groundwater which supplies 85% of potable water and industrial uses, is threatened by overuse and pollution.
Proposed Solutions
Irrigation is an effective strategy for addressing water and food scarcity but scale matters. Small-scale irrigation will mitigate financial constraints and promote efficacy by using smaller, sustainable quantities of water.
Alternatively, Senegal could adopt a circular economy approach (see figure 3) to address water and food insecurity by reusing wastewater and improving stormwater capture.
Alternatively, Senegal could adopt a circular economy approach (see figure 3) to address water and food insecurity by reusing wastewater and improving stormwater capture.
This approach has been successful as with private sector involvement, Dakar utility intends to address water scarcity affecting Dakar’s farmers by increasing wastewater treatment from 19,000 to 92,000 cubic metres per day, highlighting the capabilities of the Senegalese government and the benefits of private sector investments in Senegal’s fight against water and food insecurity.
Hey again Ajoa, loving the flow of the posts so far, is nice to see your personal viewpoint developing! I agree that funding clearly is the most significant hurdle in tackling these big issues. Any thoughts on what the most effective way these smaller towns can raise capital? Is privatisation the right answer?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Manny! As I discussed, funding is the big issue - particularly in small towns/villages. Privatisation can be an option, but it should be carefully managed (by the national government) to ensure A) equal and affordable access for urban and rural Senegalese citizens and that B) rural citizens aren't burdened by high water prices. I will always advocate for nationalisation over privatisation personally, but I recognise the difficulties that come with the nationalisation of water resources particularly in Africa (in terms of maintenance etc..)
DeleteHello Ajoa, enjoyed reading this post! I liked how you structured your post and proposed solutions to the problems outlined at the end. Do you think its possible for Senegal to sustainably use their groundwater supplies or do you think its better to focus on the concept of the circular economy approach you proposed?
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Paulina! I think the ideal solution is finding a balanced, integrated solution that combines both approaches. However, I think Senegal should invest more efforts towards the concept of a circular economy. As Senegal continues to undergo rapid urbanisation, a circular economy approach may be the most effective and sustainable way to support its population without depleting groundwater stores. Plus, groundwater replenishes slowly, and Senegal has plenty of rainwater and surface water to utilise!
DeleteNice to bring a case study of a country into the explanation of irrigation and water scarcity. Hope to see more of your personal thinking and critics on the topic!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHey Ajoa, really loved reading through this blogpost, seeing as new agro-technologies is also a theme I've been exploring. How do you think innovations in irrigation methods will play into this (e.g., drip irrigation, solar-powered irrigation, etc.)? And what is the significance of energy resources in enabling further developments in this realm? Here's an interesting paper I found during my own research that I hope you may like by Froebrich et al. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.2397.
ReplyDeleteHi Noah, I’m glad you enjoyed my blog post. Innovations in irrigation methods will definitely play a role in helping Senegal overcome water scarcity issues however a major challenge will be the funding needed to implement such methods. Then there comes the issue of dependency should Senegal choose to turn to foreign agencies/other countries for these technologies. Also, when we consider scale, the affordability of certain energy sources must be recognised. While methods like solar-powered irrigation for example sound promising, we also need to think about the feasibility of implementing these methods in remote regions (cost issues, maintenance etc). It’s definitely not impossible though. And thanks for sharing that paper - I’ll definitely check it out!
DeleteI really liked in this blog how you have not just stated the challenges facing Senegal but also what can be done about it. I think this is a really productive way to go about your blog. How do you think governments can avoid relying on loans for large scale infrastructure projects?
ReplyDeleteThank you for appreciating my blog approach Grace! Avoiding an over-reliance on loans would ultimately require governments such as Senegal’s to improve their fiscal discipline or more effectively tax citizens and business to raise money for infrastructure projects. Importantly, this requires governments to be transparent and accountable. If Senegal, for example, were to do this whilst weaning off their use of loans we could see their reliance on loans reduce over time.
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