Securing water resources to build community resilience to water threats and climate variability in the Sahel

This paper describes an approach to strengthen water security of communities living in water stressed parts of the Sahel. Threats to water security such as climate variability, climate change, growing demand, deforestation, erosion, pollution and poor service sustainability impact water availability and quality for domestic, livestock and livelihood needs, sometimes resulting in conflict. WaterAid’s Securing Water Resources Approach (SWRA) involves collectively identifying threats that are likely to manifest themselves using participatory monitoring of groundwater, rainfall and surface water. Information from monitoring feeds into risk based planning aimed at agreeing allocations between water users as well as improvements to services. SWRA strengthens the link between communities and local government institutions that might assist with conflict resolution and service level improvements. The overall goal is to strengthen local level resilience to water related threats, complementing national plans for water resource management and climate change adaptation.