Introduction
Somalia, a self-destruction war-torn nation in the Horn of Africa, is
currently suffering from substantial water scarcity problems. In one hand,
the country is located in a dry climate area, where there is a natural
water scarcity. On the other hand, during the last decade the country is in
an unprecedented situation of civil unrest and political crisis. It also lacks
human and financial resources to set up institutions and water infrastructures
that are desperately needed. Moreover, facilities that have previously been
set up for water supply and irrigation were totally destroyed during the civil
war and no data is available. Demand for water is increasing due to population
(est. 9 million) and urban growth and further increase could be expected when
the current civil unrest is ended.
In the country, water, despite of considering as a technical issue, has a social, environmental, socio-economical and political values. Water scarcity is also a serious threat to country's development and social stability. It also plays a central role in the performance of the cultural activities and values.
This paper presents and analyses water related issues in Somalia examining limitations to and potentials for future water development. As methodology, literature review and interview with relevant informants were carried out. Before analysing Water Resources Management systems, the paper will give brief description of country's water resources followed by presentation of different water uses with their infrastructure development. The paper will also analyse the salient features of the two international rivers, the Juba and Shabelle, which carry Somalia's most freshwater resources.
Country's
Water Resources
Located in an arid and semi-arid climate with an extremely low, variable and
often unreliable rainfall, on average, the country
receives 250 mm of rainfall per year, while the potential evapotranspiration
is above 2000 mm/y. Southern part receives relatively more rains.
Being prone to devastating droughts and destroying
floods with severe effects on humans, animals
and the environment, any sign of drought are received with dread and worry.
Praying and sacrificing to Allah (God) for rain is not therefore only common
in the country but also religious, and the onset of the rains is often viewed
as the single most important event of the year. In Somali, rain has therefore
moral values, making water as precious as gold. As predicted by FAO, Somalia
has already joined water scarce countries, passing the point defined by Falkenmark
to indicate severe water stress.
The total annual available water resources is estimated to about 10,000 million
m3. Significant portion of country's water resources exist in the two international
rivers, Juba & Shabelle, in southern part. Originating in the Ethiopian
Highlands and draining into the Indian Ocean, the combined area of the river
basins is estimated to 805 100 km2, occupying parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and
Somalia. The total mean annual runoff is 6,400 Mm3 for the Juba and 2,384
Mm3 for the Shabelle.
Sectoral Water Developments
Domestic
Water Use - A Growing Sector
Water withdrawal for domestic purpose was estimated to only 3% of the total.
Before the civil war started in 1991, almost 6 million of the population had
no secure access to safe water, while more than 7 million lacked sanitation.
Supplied currently from community wells by donkey carts due to lack of infrastructure
developments and distribution systems, water supplies for domestic purposes
are unreliable in Somalia. Being one of the things which the urban residents
value most, urban water supply with centralised distribution system is a future
dream.
The most notable urban water project ever implemented was Mogadishu Water
Supply scheme during 1980s. Mogadishu, currently suffering from a lack of
secure and safe source of water, is located near a reliable aquifer between
the city and the Shabelle River. However, water supply
services in urban areas including Mogadishu is currently run by unregulated
private entities with no common vision and co-ordination. The uncontrolled
water distribution in urban areas has benefited its residents in many ways
responding to water needs and creating wealth, however, such process has its
own dangers. Impacts on the environment is severely ignored and pollution
is at its peak, because of no attention has been paid to what happens to water
after use. Nowhere in the country sewage is ever collected and treated, and
people dispose their human waste in pit latrines, which together with solid
waste that is locally dumped or left pollute the groundwater resources that
the cities rely.
Agriculture Water Use - A threatened Sector
In Somalia, the cultivable area mainly between the two rivers in the south
was estimated to 8 million ha in 1985, 13% of the total area, while 980 000
ha were cultivated by annual crops, but only about 18 000 ha consisted of
permanent crops. Main crops are maize, sorghum, sugar cane and rice, while
bananas are the principal cash crop, accounting for 40% of export earnings
in 1988. In 1985, total water withdrawal was estimated at 870 million m3,
97% of which was drawn to irrigated agriculture. Equivalent to 8% of the country's
total annual available water resources, this indicates country's technical
water scarcity due to the low level of infrastructure development.
Irrigation Development Projects that have been implemented or planned include:
(1) Juba Sugar Project (JSP), often known as Marerey, near Jilib.
(2) Mugambo Rice Irrigation Project, Jamame, using run-of-the-river via canal.
(3) Fanole Dam Project, multipurpose dam development, located near Jilib.
(4) Arare Banana Irrigation Project, around Jamame.
(5) Bardere Dam Project (BDP), the largest ever planned but unimplemented
project.
All
these water projects are based on the Juba River. The largest ever-planned
water development project in Somalia was Bardere Dam Project (BDP) on the
Juba River near the town of Bardere. Regarded as a vital step towards food
self-sufficient and received priority in development planning, the BDP is
intended to fulfil three functions: flood mitigation; irrigation development
and hydropower generation. The BDP was economically and technically motivated
but politically failed. Political factors that played important role include
(i) domestic political problems, and (ii) opposition from upstream country
of Ethiopia urging that the river lacks agreement on its water use and crosses
disputed land. These together with lack of funds led therefore to abandon
the giant project.
No major dam development was built on the Shabelle River, but those agriculture
activities along the river mainly rain-fed are many. Off-stream facility with
storage capacity of 200 million m3 was build on the river near Jowhar. Another
facility storing 130 - 200 million m3 was proposed upstream of Jowhar. Several
agricultural schemes, both irrigated and rain-fed, exist near Mogadishu.
In country's northern regions, where there are no major water development
implemented, there are some promising areas for water resources development
and desperately need in groundwater development for livestock watering and
rural communities supply.
Water
Resources Management (WRM)
Before the civil war started in 1991, the main institution in charge of WRM
and development in Somalia was the Ministry of Mineral and Water Resources
(MMWR), and its National Water Centre. The Water Development Agency, under
the MMWR, was responsible for operations exploiting groundwater resources
for domestic water supply. In parallel, Ministry of Agriculture was mandated
to plan and operate water for agricultural activities in the Shabelle River,
while Ministry of National Planning and Juba Valley Development became responsible
for development of the Juba River, particularly the Bardere Dam Project (BDP).
The country has never had a water act, and the system was regulated by ad
and hoc type of legal framework and centralised system not reflecting or based
on an existing policy. Lacking sectoral and coordination, functions of the
national and local agencies in water affairs were not separated.
Current Conditions & Future Realities in Somali Water Issues
Water
- An Important Factor in Social and Political Crisis
Being a determining factor in the fragile system of life in rural areas and
one of the country's main traditional sources of social conflict because of
its scarcity, water which was not available or developed to the required extent
is one of the major causes contributed to the ongoing civil war. Water should
be seen as a social, environmental and economic resource. The importance of
drinking water supply in the society, the key role it plays in subsistence
farming and livestock raising, and the significance for the different ecosystems
are significant. As a result of drier climatic conditions, breakdown in traditional
governance mechanism and increasing number of people, conflict over water
resources now became a common occurrence in the rural areas. Migration by
both people and animals in search of water is a common phenomena in Somalia.
In order to address country's unprecedented water crisis, Somali desperately
needs to find lasting solutions to the ongoing political conflict.
Constraints
in WRM and Future Water Developments
In order to avoid any frustrations in the development and management of water
resources and to address the sustainability concept, future WRM requires an
integrated approach, not by relying on the one-thing-at-a-time approaches
in the past. Technically, it would not be difficult to develop available water
resources, but the major obstacles are today political, institutional, financial,
social and environmental. These obstacles have already deeply led the country
into a major unprecedented water crisis deepening the poverty & enforcing
the Somali society to be unstable. Even during the period when these was a
central government in Somalia, the WRM systems were very weak and fragmented.
However, current perceptions in Somalia suggest a decentralised system in
WRM in order to address the growing challenges locally, but unfortunately
this idea faces several constraints. The most notable obstacles are lack of
financial and human resources, as the country is lacking not only political
stability but also infrastructure facilities and data is not available at
any level. These make the decentralisation system for WRM impractical and
thus impossible.
Somalis are predominantly pastoral communities relying on wells, this requires
development of groundwater resources, which the urban people also rely and
this may minimize the risk of local resource conflict. The problem of unpredictability
and wide variations in rainfall limits the opportunity for rainfed agriculture
and puts the life of dependent population permanently in jeopardy. Thus, the
need for irrigation development becomes extremely significant to resolve the
frequent food crisis and to increase the required production. This will not
be easy under the current conditions. A major factor, among others, is that
the most cultivable areas where food and cash crops are to be produced are
supplied by the two rivers originating in neighbouring country which contribute
most runoff .
Legal
Framework & Institutional Arrangements
As the country never had a water act, socially and political acceptable legal-based
mechanism reflecting climatic conditions and cultural values of the people,
is needed and should be developed in consultation with local communities.
In an attempt of making the WRM system more effective, separation of functions
of the national and local institutions in water business is absolutely necessary,
while encouraging private-public partnership. At the time of peace, water
institutions with centralised and decentralised elements will be necessary.
Future development of the two rivers, which supply the most fertile regions
and the rice bowl of the country, requires a national authority with an autonomous
structure.
Constraints,
Conflict and Cooperation in the Juba and Shabelle Rivers
Being international water-scarce river basins largely contributed by Ethiopia,
the two rivers provide the largest water sources for downstream Somalia whose
current and historical relations with Ethiopia were complicated in view of
their long hostility, political conflict and border dispute. These tense relations
resulted two military wars in 1964 and 1977. Even after the overthrow of the
two countries' dictators in 1991, their relations have increasingly been deteriorating.
These unfavourable political relations will definitely adversely affect required
cooperation over these rivers. The two countries, who never discussed cooperation,
face challenges in the utilisation of the shared waters. Unilateral dam developments,
which Ethiopia carries out, will severely significantly impact on Somalia
as it is located in downstream, the least favourable position in hydropolitical
terms.
CONCLUSION
The paper gives a brief overview to Somali water affairs. As a result of the
State collapse, Somalia has been outside of international debates and meetings
on water issues in the world. Water scarcity now threatening the country is
an alarming issue, severely impacting on its social, economic, political and
environmental well-beings. As the traditional socio-economic activities that
are based on livestock raisings and subsidence farming show, water plays a
major role in the lives of the Somali people. It is thus contradictory that
the country is naturally water scarce with low level of technical development
and socio-economically water dependent. The two rivers, Somalia's source of
water and perhaps its future source of conflict with Ethiopia, requires cooperation
between basin countries.
Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed
SCWE
E-mail: elmi@kth.se
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