Lake Faguibine

The lake Faguibine is a lake in the West African nation of Mali on the southern edge of the Sahara. It is located 80 km west of Timbuktu and 75 km north of the Niger, with which it is connected by a system of small lakes and canals. In the years in which the annual floods along the Niger are sufficiently high, water flows from the river into the lake. Since the drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s, however, the lake was mostly dried up. Water has since rarely reaches the sea, and even if so, the lake was only partially filled with water. Thus the local ecosystem is partially collapsed.

System of Faguibine

The lake is part of a system of five interconnected, low-lying depressions that fill up depending on the amount of the annual flood of the Niger River, more or less with water. The lake Faguibine is by far the largest of these sinks with a surface of 590 km ². The precipitate in the vicinity of the lake is less than 200 mm per year and has only a marginal impact on the water levels in the wells.

The sinks are connected to the Niger River through two channels. The southern Kondi channel (64 km long) branches off a few miles downriver from Diré from Niger and from then meanders through the Killi level. The larger, more northerly Tassakane channel (104 km long) branches off from the Niger further downstream near Korioumé from and meanders through the Kessou level. The two channels unite east of Goundam and open after another 20 km through the southern end of Lake Télé. The Télé is connected at its northern end with the Takara Lake. Water flows from the northern end of the Takara over a rocky sill at Kamaïna flows from there to the west, the village Bintagoungou over and then reaches the Faguibine.

Both the Lake Télé and the Takara must be completely filled before water can flow over the threshold at Kamaïna and fill the Faguibine. Similarly, there are two lakes in the east of Faguibine ( Kamango and Gouber ), which will only get water when the Faguibine is full. To completely fill the 590 km ² large lake Faguibine about 4 km ³ of water are required. This represents about 17 % of the average annual flow of the Niger 1970-1998 at Diré.

The lake bottom is very fertile and provides the ideal country sedentary farmers, when the lake is only partially filled. This allows food crops along the Seerandes and prosperity of Bourgou ( Echinochloa stagnina ) in low-lying areas to offer during the dry season grazing area. This type of use requires much less water, namely ³ only around 0.5 km.

Influence of annual flooding from the Niger River

The Niger Diré

Average monthly flow in cubic meters per second at the hydrometric station Diré 1924-1992

The filling of the lake Faguibine with water from the Niger River is on the one hand depends on the height of the annual flood as well as the free flow of water along the complex and 170 km long canal system that connects the lake with the river. The annual flooding along the Niger are the result of heavy rains in Guinea and the water level of the major tributary of Bani, which flows through the northern Ivory Coast and the southwest of Mali. In all these regions the peak of the rainy season is in the month of August. The amounts of rainfall, and thus the height of the floods, varies from year to year. In years with high water levels as 1924-1930 and 1951-1955, the lake was completely filled. In years of low rainfall it can completely dry out. In the 20th century this was done in the years 1914, 1924 and 1944; since the severe drought that began in the late 1970s, this is a regular phenomenon. Low water levels are exacerbated by the construction of dams on the Niger River or its tributaries, as they retain water and thus the maximum amount of flooding mitigate downstream. Of the existing dams Sélingué the dam on the river in the southwest of Mali Sankarani is the most important, it can store 2.2 km ³ of water. There are plans for a new dam, the Fomi Dam, on Niandan River in Guinea, which can store almost three times the amount of water. If this dam would be built, the intensity of the annual floods would further reduced.

One of the main objectives of a project of the Sudano-Sahelian Office of the United Nations ( UNSO, 1986-1990) to improve the connection of the Niger with the Faguibine and cut off some of the meanders of the Kondi channel was. The project was interrupted by the Tuareg rebellion between 1990 and 1995. During the 1980s, the low level of annual floods had caused an intense battle for the water, the local population dammed the flow in the channels and installed fish traps. Since 2003, the German aid organization Mali -Nord financed the construction of irrigated areas that do not impede the flow of water in the channels.

In 2006, the Government of Mali has established the Office pour la Mise en Valeur du système Faguibine ( OMVF ) to life. His goal is to get the channels and stabilize the dunes by planting balsam spurge and eucalyptus. Much of the vegetation that had stabilized dunes is due to the drought that began in the late 1970s, disappeared. As a result, sand was blown or washed into the channels. The threshold at Kamaïna is next to dunes and is particularly susceptible to the accumulation of sand. Since 2002, the inhabitants of the villages to work with in the removal of sand, since 2006, the activities are organized by the OMVF and supported by the World Food Programme of the United Nations. In October 2008, about 1,000 people worked six days, forget to remove the sand.

In a project funded by the Government of Norway, the environmental program of the United Nations studied the lake's ecosystem and examined ways in which the management of land and the water cycle could be improved. The project will run from 2008 to 2015 and is equipped with a starting budget of 1 million U.S. dollars.

Maximum water level (in meters ) of the Niger Diré