300px, Yobe River catchment area showing location of the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands
The Hadejia-Nguru wetlands in
Yobe State
Yobe is a state located in northeastern Nigeria. A mainly agricultural state, it was created on 27 August 1991. Yobe State was carved out of Borno State. The capital of Yobe State is Damaturu; and it's largest and most populated city is Potisku ...
in northern
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, which include Nguru Lake, are ecologically and economically important. They are threatened by reduced rainfall in recent years, a growing population and upstream dam construction.
Geography
The
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
s lie in the Yobe-Komadugu sub-basin of the
Chad Basin
The Chad Basin is the largest endorheic basin in Africa, centered on Lake Chad. It has no outlet to the sea and contains large areas of semi-arid desert and savanna. The drainage basin is roughly coterminous with the sedimentary basin of the sam ...
. They are formed where the
Hadejia
Haɗejiya (also Haɗeja, previously Biram) is a Hausa town in eastern Jigawa State, northern Nigeria. The population was approximately 105,628 in 2006. Hadejia lies between latitude 12.4506N and longitude 10.0404E. It shared boundary with Kiri Ka ...
and
Jama'are
Jama'are is a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Jama'are. It has an area of 493 km and a population of 176,883 at the 2006 census.
The postal code of the area is 751.
It is populated by a Ful ...
rivers meet lines of ancient sand dunes in a northeast-southwest alignment and break into numerous channels. They are drained by the
Yobe River
The Yobe River, also known as the Komadougou Yobe or the Komadougou-Yobe (french: Komadougou Yobé), is a river in West Africa that flows into Lake Chad through Nigeria and Niger.
Its tributaries include the Hadejia River, the Jama'are River ...
, which flows east towards
Lake Chad
Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...
Sahel
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
to the north. Some of the land is permanently flooded, while other parts are flooded only in the wet season (August and September).
Annual rainfall ranges between 200–600 mm, during the period late May–September.
At one time the wetlands may have covered up to 3,000 km2. Between 1964 and 1971 over 2,000 km2 were flooded. By 1983 less than 900 km2 were flooded, and less than 300 km2 were flooded in the drought year of 1984.
Ecology
The Hadejia-Nguru wetlands are on the
List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance
This is the list of Wetlands of International Importance as defined by the Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientif ...
. Nguru
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
and the Marma Channel complex (58,100 ha) are designated a
Ramsar Site
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O)
*** Permanent 8 ha (P)
*** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts)
**
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
waterbirds. The estimated waterbird population varies between 200,000 and 325,000. 377 bird species have been seen in the wetlands, including occasional sightings of the near-threatened
pallid harrier
The pale or pallid harrier (''Circus macrourus'') is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier subfamily. The scientific name is derived from the Ancient Greek. ''Circus'' is from ''kirkos'', referring to a bird of prey named for its circling fli ...
and
great snipe
The great snipe (''Gallinago media'') is a small stocky wader in the genus ''Gallinago''. This bird's breeding habitat is marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia. Great snipes are mig ...
species.
The Bade-Nguru Wetlands sector of the
Chad Basin National Park
The Chad Basin National Park is a national park
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a s ...
covers 938 km2 of the wetlands.
Parts of the wetlands are protected by five
Forest Reserves
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
, a
Wildlife Sanctuary
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
and a
Ramsar Site
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O)
*** Permanent 8 ha (P)
*** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts)
**
Quelea quelea
The red-billed quelea (; ''Quelea quelea''), also known as the red-billed weaver or red-billed dioch, is a small—approximately long and weighing —migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, native to Sub-Saharan Africa.
...
'', in the process killing non-target species. Marginal land is now coming under cultivation and tree cover in the forest reserves is being depleted.
Economy
The area supports about 1.5 million farmers,
herder
A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...
s and
fishermen
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...
.
The wetlands support wet-season rice farming, flood-recession agriculture and dry-season farming using irrigation. Crops include peppers and wheat. The wetlands support fishermen, who often also farm, and provide fuel wood and leaves used for making mats and ropes. The lands are also grazed by
Fulani
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...
cattle.
Issues
The wetlands have suffered from increasingly severe
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
s in recent years. Since the 1980s, the use of small gasoline-powered irrigation pumps has increased the land that can be used for farming, causing conflicts with the cattle herders and disputes over land ownership.
Dams have threatened the viability of the wetlands, particularly the
Tiga Dam
The Tiga Dam is in Kano State in the Northwest of Nigeria, constructed in 1971–1974. It is a major reservoir on the Kano River, the main tributary of the Hadejia River.
Description
The dam was built during the administration of Governor Aud ...
and the
Challawa Gorge Dam
The Challawa Gorge Dam is in Karaye Local Government Area of Kano State in the Northwest of Nigeria, about 90 km southwest of Kano city. It is a major reservoir on the Challawa River, a tributary of the Kano River, which is the main trib ...
, which now control most of the water flow in the Hadejia river and have reduced seasonal flooding and overall water supply. It is estimated that the Tiga dam on the Kano river has reduced flooding by about 350 km2.
A dam was built on the Hadejia river just upstream from the wetlands for irrigation purposes, completed in 1972, which has also affected flooding.
The proposed
Kafin Zaki Dam
The Kafin Zaki Dam is a controversial project to build a reservoir on the Jama'are River (also called the Bunga River in its upper reaches) in Bauchi State in the Northeast of Nigeria.
Proposed dam and reservoir
The proposed dam would be of zo ...
on the Jama'are river could pose a further threat.
Due to these changes, large areas of farming and grazing land and important fish ponds have either dried up along channels blocked by invasive
Typha
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...
grass, or have been flooded.
See also
*
Hadejia River
The Hadejia River (Hausa: ) is a river in northern Nigeria and is a tributary of the Yobe River (Komadugu Yobe).
Among the cities and towns that lie on or near its banks are Hadejia and Nguru.
Damming of the river for the purposes of irrigatio ...
External links
* G.E. Hollis, W.M. Adams & M. Aminu-Kano ''The Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands-Environment, Economy and Sustainable Development of a Sahelian Floodplain Wetland''. 1993. Contents page
