Livestock development projects initiated in sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades have absorbed close to one billion American dollars worth of aid. Much of this aid, particularly during the period 1961 to 1975, has been directed towards the semi-arid and arid zones where the provision of drinking water for man and his livestock has been the largest single item of expenditure. In these zones, which are occupied primarily by pastoral people, shortages of drinking water occur every dry season, of which there are one or two a year depending on the region. Therefore any form of water development might be expected to improve the living standards of pastoral people in normal years and their chances of survival in times of drought.
Unfortunately this is often not so. Water development may contribute to imbalances in the use of land and water resources in dry areas. These imbalances are exacerbated and intensified when they coincide with detrimental climatic fluctuations, both wet and dry, making the effects of drought and flood more severe and leaving a legacy of erosion and desertification. Recent improvements in international communications have given extensive publicity to natural disasters and helped to focus world attention on the problems of water and livestock.
The most recent example of such a catastrophe in Africa was the drought in the Sahel from 1968 to 1973. It caused the collapse of the livestock industry of five countries - Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Upper Volta - and severely damaged that of two others, Senegal and the Gambia.
It was against this background that ILCA was prompted to put together a series of state-of-knowledge reports on water and livestock problems in Africa. There were a number of scientific disciplines involved, and the subject has been divided into four topics, each of which is dealt with in a separate research report (RR) as follows:
RR 6. The water resource in tropical Africa and its exploitation,
RR 7. Livestock water needs in pastoral Africa in relation to climate and forage,
RR 8. Organisation and management of water supplies in tropical Africa,
RR 9. Economics and planning of water supplies in pastoral Africa.
The four reports are best read in relation to one another.
As well as providing technical and economic guidelines for national planning authorities, these reports review the interrelation of animal metabolism, water, climate and forage. They also consider the complexities of human organisation and management upon which the success or failure of the most carefully prepared and executed water development project will largely depend. The authors are primarily addressing senior personnel engaged in scientific research, planning and implementation. The justification for this approach is that if there were simple solutions to the problems of water and livestock in Africa, they would have been found some time ago.
