Mali gears up for its highest level of flooding in the Inner Niger Delta in 50 years

Mali’s Inner Niger Delta is expected to experience its highest level of flooding in 50 years in the coming months, putting people, homes and animals at risk, an international conservation group has warned.

Netherlands-based Wetlands International works with Mali’s national water directorate to produce regular forecasts for the annual flood on the Niger River, which usually begins in July.

This year, the water level measured on September 6 in the inland delta’s southern Mopti area was the highest since 1964.

Flooding will reach its peak in November and December, and the area under water is expected to be two and a half times larger than in dry years.

The flood is strong this year as a result of higher than average rainfall in the early rainy season in Guinea and Mali, combined with already high levels of groundwater, Wetlands International said.

The delta, just south of the Sahara desert in West Africa, consists of flood plains, lakes, river branches and small pockets of flood forest, and sustains about 1.5-million people. They depend on the annual flood to support their rice farming, fishing and cattle herding. But they are unprepared for the likely extent of flooding due this year, said Karounga Keïta, Wetlands International co-ordinator in Mali.

“The population has not been used to such an exceptionally high level for a long time, so houses have become (built) very close to the rivers and water channels that are flooded,” he said. “There is a big risk of human victims, damage to people’s houses, and also to hydro-electric installations.”

As well as working with the government to head off a potential disaster, Wetlands International is calling a meeting of humanitarian agencies in the town of Mopti later this month so that they can help manage the threat.

Keïta said there were measures people could take to reduce damage, such as protecting their dwellings and moving animals – a key source of income in the area – to higher ground.

Information about water levels and predictions for the country’s water basins are broadcast on television and radio stations so that people are alerted well in advance, he added.