Mali’s Lush Wetlands Drained by Foreign Agribusiness

Published on January 9, 2013 13:58 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Social

Nearly two million Malians live on theDeboyedelta. "Everything here depends on the water," said the mayor. "But"—and here he paused gravely, pushed his glasses down an elegant nose, and began waving a long finger—"the government is taking our water. They are giving it to foreign farmers. They don't even ask us."

What is happening here in Mali is happening all over the world. People who depend on the natural flow of water, and the burst of nature that comes with it, are losing out as powerful people upstream divert the water.Some blame failing rains and changing climate for this crisis on the delta. Not so, said the mayor. Upstream diversions of water are to blame.

The aim is to provide water for Chinese sugar farms, Libyan rice growers, and German-, French-, and American-funded agricultural development schemes, in a region managed by a government irrigation agency called theOffice du Niger. The government sees such development as the route to modernizing its agriculture through encouraging foreign investment. But critics say ministers inBamako, the capital, are oblivious to the shortage of water that is a critical constraint on achieving this goal.

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