The GLOWA Volta Project: A framework for water resources decision-making and scientific capacity building in a transnational West African basin

摘要

The problems facing the water sector in the Volta Basin are, in most respects, generic to an increasing number of basins worldwide. These include increasing demand overlaid on static or possibly declining resources, increasing intersectoral competition, deteriorating water quality, weak, ineffective or conflicting rights and governance structures, and limited financial resources available for investment. The situation in the Volta Basin is distinguished largely as a matter of degree - the extremity of the Basin's vulnerability to the likely impacts of global climate change, the disproportionate dependency of Basin inhabitants on increasingly risky rainfed agriculture exacerbated by the exceptionally low levels of irrigation investment and irrigated area, the overall fragility of the West African economy and its sensitivity to movements in commodity prices, and the susceptibility of inhabitants to a wide range of waterborne and water-related illnesses. The list could be expanded.