By Yemi Olakitan
Niger has formally declared its intention to join the United Nations Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, also known as the Water Convention, following the lead of several other nations in the region.
This planned accession is a significant development for the area since it will fully incorporate Lake Chad within the Convention’s legal system.
Niger will join the riparian nations of Lake Chad, including Nigeria, which is in the process of becoming a party, and Chad and Cameroon, which became parties in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
Ninety per cent of Niger’s water resources are shared with its neighbours.
The country’s shared water resources are facing increasing challenges as a result of the rapid rise in water demand brought on by population growth (Niger has 25 million people and an annual population growth rate of nearly 4%), urbanisation, intensification of irrigated agriculture, and rising industrialization.
Recently, there has been a larger reliance on groundwater resources as a result of these difficulties getting worse.
The consequences of climate change are also a danger to the sustainability of these resources.
Transboundary cooperation is a crucial instrument in this situation for addressing some of these issues since it creates a forum for dialogue amongst riparian nations to find common solutions.
The Lake Chad Basin Water Charter is one of the agreements on shared resources that Niger has already signed.
The Niger Basin Authority and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, two important basin organisations in the area, both have Niger as a member.
By easing the application of these regional legal frameworks, joining the Water Convention will enable Niger to strengthen its current collaboration with its neighbours.
The Water Convention is a legal framework, whose implementation, in addition to regional frameworks and national instruments, will undoubtedly contribute to supporting our country’s efforts in transboundary cooperation on our shared basins, conflict prevention, peace promotion, and sub-regional integration, according to Mr. Adamou Mahaman, Minister of Water and Sanitation, who made this statement today at the national workshop. The Sahel’s climatic vulnerability is reflected in episodes of severe drought and variable rainfall, making the region at times subject to heavy rains and flooding and at other times to insufficient rainfall. Water scarcity, in particular, threatens the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on rain-fed agriculture and livestock. In recent decades, competition for land, water, and food has intensified in the region, leading to increased instability, particularly around Lake Chad and in the Niger River basin.
The accession of more and more countries in the region to the Water Convention will help to politically prioritize the issue of water resources management through enhanced cooperation at the political and technical levels – also taking into account the inherent interactions that exist between access to water, food security and regional instability.
The Convention also provides a solid basis to help mobilize financing and reduce the risks of investment in water infrastructure.
Sonja Koeppel, Secretary of the Convention, said, “Niger’s upcoming accession to the Water Convention confirms the growing political interest worldwide in transboundary cooperation on shared water resources. The United Nations Water Conference to be held from 22-24 March 2023 will provide an opportunity to advance this issue, particularly in the context of the interactive dialogue on water for cooperation. This is important given that more than 60% of water resources are found in transboundary basins.”