The Volta River Basin Water for Food, Economic Growth and Environment

About this book

The Volta River Basin (VRB) is an important transboundary basin in West Africa that covers approximately 410,000 square kilometres across six countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo. Its natural resources sustain the livelihoods of its population and contribute to economic development. The Volta River Basin: Water for Food, Economic Growth and Environment provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary review and assessment of the issues and challenges faced.

The authors provide a science-based assessment of current and future scenarios of water availability, the demands of key sectors, including agriculture and hydropower, and the environment under changing demographic, economic, social and climatic conditions. They also identify solutions and strategies that will allow available water resources to be sustainably used to improve agricultural productivity, food security and economic growth in the VRB. Overall, the work examines from a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder perspective the solutions and strategies to improve the use of water and other natural resources in the VRB to achieve enhanced food security, livelihoods and economic growth.

Contents

Part 1: Introduction
1. Introduction
      Timothy O. Williams, Marloes L. Mul, Charles Biney and Vladimir Smakhtin

Part 2: Basin Resources: Trends, Drivers and Status
2. Socioeconomic Status, Trends and Drivers of Change
      Shashidhara Kolavalli and Timothy O. Williams
3. Surface Water Resources of the Volta Basin
      Marloes L. Mul, Raymond A. Kasei and Matthew McCartney
4. Groundwater Resources of the Volta Basin
      Emmanuel Obuobie, Boubacar Barry and William Agyekum
5. Climate Variability and Change over the Volta River Basin
      Mouhamadou B. Sylla, Frank O. Annor, Raymond A. Kasei and Mamadou L. Mbaye
6. Managing Floods and Droughts
      Raymond A. Kasei, Barnabas Amisigo and Marloes L. Mul

Part 3: People, Policies and Institutions
7. Poverty, Vulnerability and Livelihoods in the Volta Basin: A Gendered Analysis
      Amy Sullivan, Elsie Odonkor and Nicoline de Haan
8. Water Governance in the Volta Basin
      Ben Ampomah, Winston Andah and Charles Biney

Part 4: Challenges and Opportunities in the Use of Water Resources
9. Improving Agriculture and Food Security in the Volta Basin
      Augustine Ayantunde, Pamela G. Katic, Olufunke Cofie and Edward K. Abban
10. Urban and Industrial Development
      Daniel Van Rooijen, Ben Ampomah, Josiane Nikiema, Yacouba Noël Coulibaly and Lydie Yiougo
11. Water-Food-Energy Nexus and Hydropower Development
      Emmanuel O. Bekoe, Winston Andah, Frederick Y. Logah and Bedru B. Balana

Part 5: Balancing Development and Nature
12. Ecosystem Services in the Volta Basin
      Fred Kizito and Bedru B. Balana
13. Environmental Flow Requirements in the Volta Basin
      Marloes L. Mul and Yongxuan Gao
14. Water Quality and Public Health
      Chris Gordon, Adelina Mensah, Josiane Nikiema and Pay Drechsel
15. Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in the Volta River Basin
      Timothy O. Williams, Jennie Barron and Olufunke Cofie

Part 6: Governance and Livelihoods
16. Simulating Current and Future Volta Basin Water Development Scenarios
      Aditya Sood, Ousmane Seidou, Gerald Forkuor, Frank O. Annor and Matthew McCartney

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Biography

Timothy O. Williams is Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Accra, Ghana. Marloes L. Mul is a Senior Researcher in Hydrology and Water Resources at the IWMI, Accra, Ghana. Charles A. Biney is Acting Executive Director of the Volta Basin Authority, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Vladimir Smakhtin was Head of the Water Availability, Risk and Resilience Research Department at IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is now the Director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.