c/o CAR
1857, de Maissonneuve Ouest, bureau 315
Montreal, Quebec H3H 1J9
CANADA
Under the auspices of "l'Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du fleuve Senegal, (O.M.V.S.)", three countries of the Sahel -- Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal, have undertaken the building of hydro-electric dams on the Senegal River which they share. In spite of the region's fragile ecosystem and 15 years of drought, feasibility studies have not seriously taken the environment into account. Economic issues alone were at the basis of the decision. Women, moreover, were not considered by the O.M.V.S. in the decision-making process, although it is women who constitute the majority of the population.
The Diama dam was completed in 1985 and the Manantali dam in 1989. Their impact on the ecosystem, on the population in general and on women in particular, are already being felt. On the socio-economic level, women are indeed at the center of activities propelled by the O.M.V.S. (rice and vegetable cultivation, etc.) and constitute the main working force. However, they have access (1) neither to the land nor to credit. In addition to their traditional domestic chores, they are overburdened with work and responsibilities.
On the level of health, women themselves identify various illnesses caused by the dams suchas bilharziasis, which is increasingly prevalent, as well as paludism and other illnesses. Women are the most affected because, in addition to being exposed to these illnesses, they are the ones who must assume, without adequate medical assistance, the burden of tending to sick children and the elderly.
The O.M.V.S. project also affects the population on the level of alimentation and nutrition and poses serious survival problems for women who are in charge of feeding the family. The embankments built along the river and the Manantali dam indeed prevent water from inundating, as it did in the past, the lands of the Low Valley and the Delta. This engenders a reduction, if not the disappearance, of cultures based on the rise and fall of water levels which insured the basic nutritional needs of the population. For different reasons, the doubling of rice culture, previously announced by the O.M.V.S., has also, as of now, not taken place. Moreover, fish are disappearing from the river and cattle, undernourished because of reduced grazing zones, no longer produce milk.
Furthermore, the non-inundation of the land entails for the ecosystem an impoverishment of vegetation and causes difficulty for women to provide themselves with the wood needed for cooking. Also, the environment of irrigated zones of cultivation is also increasingly threatened by water and soil pollution brought about by the untimely and uncontrolled use of pesticides which expose women to illnesses related to chemical products.
1-When the women organize themselves, men grant them 2 to 5 acres for groups of 200 to 600 women or more.
Return to Women of the World Interacting with the Environment: Part B
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