Welcome to the Basin Focal Projects (BFPs) 

See & download presentations from the Andes, Karkheh, Nile, Niger, Limpopo, Sao Francisco, Indo-Ganges, Volta, Yellow River & Mekong basins

Photos from the BFP basins at Flickr                                                                                                                                                            

The Basin Focal Projects of the Challenge Program for Water and Food (CPWF) provide strategic research to identify the links between water, food and poverty in river basins. We are told the world faces problems of water and food security, cause by increasing population, development and the consequences of this on the demand for food and water. But what is the specific evidence to identify how widespread these problems are, why they occur and what are possible options to improve the situation? Based on the best scientific analysis within nine Benchmark River Basins (plus an additional project in the Niger basin), these projects will provide CPWF stakeholders with the following research outputs:

1. Analysis within basins of how agricultural water management in specific areas supports livelihoods, and in particular livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable; 
2. Prognosis of basin-to-global scale change of agricultural water management and its impact on poverty and food production;
3. Definition of basin hydrologic function with respect to food production and environmental security, indicating risks to critical environmental flows from changes in patterns of agricultural water use; and
4. Definitions of coherent Impact Pathways of projects in the CPWF, together with associated projects within basins. 

    

What the BFPs produce

The BFPs provide insight into the global condition of water, food and poverty, disaggregated in sufficient detail to support intervention within river basins. Some of the insights emerging include:

• Relationships among water, food and poverty are variable, subtle and complex. The nature of these relationships reflect the complex way twin pressures of water and food systems play out in basins, given overall development status, condition of water resources and characteristic of the agricultural system. A simple 5-class concept of water-related poverty has been posted for discussion here
• The simplistic notion that “water scarcity increases poverty” is rarely adequate. It is true that some people are pushed into poverty as a consequence of water scarcity. More often, however, the ability to access, organize or exploit water and land resources seems more influential than total availability.
• Poverty is increased by inequitable development of land and water resources. Lack of access is more important than total water availability. This remains true even in industrialized economies. For example, some people have been left behind in poverty within the Sao Francisco – an otherwise prosperous and (relatively) “water-rich” basin.
• The loss of pre-existing livelihood support due to inequitable water and land governance is common and often under-reported. It tends to affect the poorest, such as those who rely on fish in the Mekong, or on pastures in the Nile, Volta or Niger are often neglected when development happens.
• People are poor when they are unprotected against water-related hazards, such as drought, flood or water-related disease. The ability to cope, or even exploit, the “hazard” is more important than the hazard itself. Many people depend on annual Mekong floods. In contrast, periodic Limpopo floods are life-threatening.
• Water productivity – that is, the conversion rate of water into food - is generally very low. This is true almost everywhere in rain-fed systems. This is both bad news; the situation seems widespread, and good: there is ample scope for improvements which will lead to improvement of the common good.
• Estimates suggest the potential water productivity of wheat is approximately 2 kg/m3, but it is rare to find systems with productivity greater than 0.4 or 0.6 kg/m3 (exceptions occur in parts of the Ganges, Yellow River and Nile delta). This is the case for many other staple foods such as rice, sorghum or millet.
• Water use accounting indicates that grassland systems dominate water use globally. In African basins, this importance is even more pronounced. Grassland systems in the Limpopo, Nile and Volta process by far the largest volume of water passing through the basins (52%, 45%, and 80%), yet much less is known about how such systems support rural livelihoods, even in the Nile, where the vast majority of people depend on livestock for an important part of their livelihood. More recent analysis of livestock water productivity indicates that these systems can be relatively efficient and valuable converters of water into livelihood support.
• Runoff in relatively dry basins is less than 15% of rainfall received. By contrast, in the Mekong, a relatively wet basin, annual runoff is almost 40% of total water balance. This delivers an estimated average of 440 bcm of water to the system, which supports an aquatic environment over much of the basin on which most (estimated at 65%) of the population depend.