Preliminary Results from a Water Economy and Livelihoods Survey (WELs) in Nigeria and Mali, Sub-Saharan Africa, investigating water security and access

In stark contrast to food scarcity, very little systematic data collection has been done to investigate the role water scarcity has on livelihoods within rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly during droughts or periods of water stress (Calow et al. 2009). The sustainable development and management of water resources in Africa, particularly perennial groundwater resources, remains a major priority, especially within the context of climate variability, population growth and pressures to increase food production. The main purpose of this study was to investigate changes in access and domestic use of a range of water sources (hand pumps, wells, surface water sources and rainfall harvesting) within rural communities across a rainfall transect in Nigeria and Mali, sub-Saharan Africa. Seasonal water use and scarcity/stress indices (e.g. collection times and per capita volumes) were investigated a approximately 50 locations using community discussions and questionnaires in four different study areas across the climate/rainfall transect (see Figure 1). These included equal numbers of communities using groundwater resources on sedimentary and basement aquifers. A secondary aim was to investigate whether a slimmed down water, economy and livelihoods (WEL) survey methodology (Coulter 2010) is an effective way collect this type of information. Calow, R.C., MacDonald, A.M., Nicol, A.L., Robins, N.S., 2009. Ground water security and drought in Africa: linking availability, access and demand. Ground Water, 48, 2, 246-256. Coulter, L. 2010. Assessing seasonal water access and implications for livelihoods, RiPPLE WELS Toolkit report, RiPPLE-ODI Ethiopia.