Vol. IV - Mapping, Assessment & Management of Transboundary Water Resources

Mapping, Assessment & Management of Transboundary Water Resources in the IGAD Sub-Region Project: GIS/Data Base component - Vol. IV

The report is built out of three key environmental thematic areas: drought and desertifica-tion; flooding and erosion risk; water quality and pollution. These three areas were covered at national and sub-regional levels, meaning that the volume contains analysis of each of the 7 IGAD Member States and a general sub-regional analysis for each thematic area.

Large areas of the IGAD sub region are arid, semi-arid or desert with more than 50% of their land mass regarded as arid or semi-arid in some of the countries. The impacts of climate change and variability are therefore felt directly by these countries, especially the most vulnerable rural populations. The arid and semi-arid lands are mainly inhabited by the itinerant pastoralists and nomads, some of who combine pastoralism with agriculture. However their habitats are being denuded of vegetation – especially the forests – leading to wider environmental impacts such as land degradation, reduction in ground and surface water resources, pollution of the soils and waters, increased soil erosion and failure by the ecosystems to perform their roles in a sustainable manner.

The rapid population growth and poor socioeconomic structures in these countries make the future bleak for the vulnerable populations. The severity of flooding has increased in all the IGAD countries over the last few decades as a result of climate change and variability which makes rainfall become highly unpredictable.

The IGAD region is experiencing a surge in oil discoveries and will face the problems of increased pollution from exploration and exploitation of oil from the countries. Sudan is already experiencing severe problems with produced water during the exploitation of oil while Uganda is soon moving to the stage of producing oil in the Albertine Graben of Western Uganda.

An important footnote to this report is the fact of the independence of South Sudan from the Sudan which took place on 9 July 2011. This Report gives information that is valid for the combined State of Sudan. There was no opportunity to disaggregate the data to the two separate independent countries at the time of finalising this Report.