Description
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. This book 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.
Table of 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
