Malians reclaim Niger River

By Joan Baxter
BBC, Mali

The Niger River is the lifeblood for about 60 million people in West Africa.

From its origins in Guinea, it flows north through Mali, Niger and then south through Nigeria to the sea.

The fishermen are fighting back by clearing the weed from their path

Long before it reaches the coastal delta, far inland, it is threatened by drought, desertification, pollution, and a deceptively beautiful plant - the water hyacinth - that is strangling the precious flow of water.

Sand is filling up the river bed, garbage and toxic wastes are killing the fish, the hippos and crocodiles have been hunted to the edge of extinction and drought has sent water levels plummeting.

But in the murky, polluted waters of the Niger River here in Bamako, Bozo fishermen and other friends of the river are putting on a defiant show.

They paddle their wooden canoes along a river edge littered with old car parts, plastic bags, and stagnant water covered with the floating leaves and lovely violet blossoms of the plant.

Depleted fish stock

On shore, Bozo women sing ancient songs to praise the river that feeds them, offering encouragement to the men who yank the hyacinth plants from the river.

Ibrahima Traore of the Action Group to Save the River says "that the simplest human being can remove this plant from the river".

The river is the life blood of some 60 million people

"The hyacinth extracts the oxygen from the water that prevents the fish from having oxygen."

At this point, we were overwhelmed by the arrival of dozens of boisterous fishermen coming ashore anxious to speak about their troubles.

Abdoulaye Kantao, president of the Bozo fisherman's association, says: "All the weeds now growing in the river are chasing the fish away.

"Before, we caught large fish and threw back young ones into the river.

"Today, we hardly find even small ones, so we are obliged to eat whatever we catch."

And this, of course, merely aggravates the shortage of fish in the Niger.

Money-making ventures

So why, I ask Mr Kontao, have the Bozo fishermen not acted before now to remove weeds like hyacinth.

Kantao says they have not been organised or united. But now that the Global Environmental Facility has supported a project to galvanise the fishermen's associations into action, everything is possible.

Ali Dembele, president of the Action Group to Save the Niger River, says they plan to turn all the hyacinth removed from the water into potentially money-making ventures.

Hyacinth takes over the river and deprives people of their livelihood

"We try to transform the plant into fertilisers and use some as livestock feed as well.

"We dry and use some for handicrafts. That way people can make money from the weed and protect the river at the same time," Mr Dembele said.

He believes that as hyacinth is also a problem on the Nigeria part of the Niger River, the two countries can work together to fight against the spread of the plant.

Mali's Environment Minister, Nancouma Keita, says the hyacinth on the river is a "warning" sign.

It grows best in stagnant and polluted waters, so its proliferation in the River Niger should set off alarm bells that it is time to also stop using the river as a rubbish dump, Mr Keita says.