Water Scarcity: GGW to the rescue

This prediction has started manifesting in the country as tales of clashes between herdsmen and farmers abound all over the country as freshwater scarcity in northern Nigeria has increased the prevalence of conflicts between farmers and pastoralists because they are among those whose source of livelihood are most threatened.
Competition for access to the diminishing freshwater resources often pitched both groups against each other.
According to Sunday Didam Audu, Department of Religious Studies, Babcock University, freshwater scarcity seems to be an under-estimated and under-discussed resource issue facing the world today.
It is obvious that the world’s water demand grows every year in order to meet up with increasing population. Exacerbated by climate change, freshwater scarcity is creating security concerns in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the semi-arid region.
Visible signs that show intensification of water scarcity include hitherto flowing rivers running dry, wells going deeper to reach water, lakes shrinking, diminishing rainfall, shrinking arable lands for farmers and less pastures and the drying up of drinking water sources like rivers and streams for pastoralists.
The availability of water, a major resource needed for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, is decreasing as a result of changes in global climatic conditions. Agriculture provides the means of livelihood and economic sustenance for a majority of the population of the region. Farmers and pastoralists, who are the main agricultural practitioners, make significant contributions in meeting the nutritional needs of the region and thus contributing to food security.
They are almost wholly dependent on water resources to sustain their vocations. In recent times, access to water and grazing land has become more competitive and has led the farmers and pastoralists into violent conflicts on a regular basis. This is a worrisome trend because both have coexisted inter-dependently for centuries, sharing the same fields for farming and grazing with a manageable level of tolerance and accommodation.
Water scarcity and drought affect over 20 million people in the drylands of Nigeria, threatening livelihoods and food security. In these areas, people particularly women and children, spend a whole day searching for water. Water is the most valuable commodity sought by the people and their livestock to survive the harsh environmental condition of the drylands.
In Kadandani community of Makoda Local Government Area of Kano State, Wakili Ado, a community leader said that farming and other agricultural practices were becoming unproductive as a result of less rainfall and near complete absence of water sources.
“I have lived in this community all my life. We used to have a river here spanning over many kilometres but today, the whole place has dried up and there is no water for us. The rain comes so late and so little for us to make use of it,” Ado said.
Yahaya Hussaini, District Head of Jeke community in Sule Tankarkar LGA of Jigawa State, said the greatest challenge confronting the bordering community was water. “We don’t have access to water here. We have to strive very hard to source water for our use and for our animals.”
But all this suffering is gradually being addressed by the installation of about 100 boreholes in the front line states by the National Agency for Great Green Wall.
Mr Sani Mamman Katsina, a deputy director at the National Agency for Great Green Wall said recently that in order to improve access to water in the affected frontline communities, the GGW Programme from September 2013 – September 2014 constructed 92 boreholes in 92 communities as sources of water for the people and their livestock, as well as livelihood activities.
These boreholes are renewable energy driven or powered (solar and wind) to ensure uninterrupted and sustainable water supply.  In all the communities provided with boreholes, water stress has soothed and women and children no longer trek a whole day searching for water.  It has been estimated that about 149,580 people and 1,207,567 livestock are benefiting from the 92 boreholes provided.
Hussaini, the Bulama of Jeke community said that the wind powered borehole sited in his community brought succour to his people as they now have water for human and animal use.
“Our lives have never remained the same since this borehole was sited here. Cattles come from all over the place to have water, while women and children don’t have to suffer the whole day in search of water,” he said.
According to him, the man-hour saved by the installation of the borehole in the community cannot be quantified. “It has made life better for us,” he noted.
As the communities and herds are benefiting from the water provided by the renewable energy boreholes, the trees planted along the corridor are not having it smoothly.
In most of the sites visited recently, the need to increase the number of the boreholes especially to the corridors where the trees are cannot be overemphasised.
But Mr Bala Gukut, NAGGW field officer for Jigawa said that the tree species being planted along the corridor is such that once they are planted and it rains up to three or four times the seedlings will pick on their own and don’t need watering any longer.
But observers are of the view that the desert on its own cannot sustain trees hence the need to use the opportunity of the programme to increase Nigeria’s forest cover by ensuring that each tree planted is adequately cared for and natured to maturity.