Assessment of Integrated Water Resources Management and Environmental Services for Water Users in the Massili Basin (Burkina Faso, West Africa)

Since the 1970s, the Sudano-Sahelian zone has been characterized by climate change, which has intensified pressure on existing water resources and exacerbated water quality problems, water shortages, famine, deforestation, and desertification. The chronic droughts recorded in the early 1970s led some countries, such as Burkina Faso, to put water at the center of the political agenda. However, the preferred vision was technical and government-centric. In the mid-1990s, Burkina Faso adopted Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as an appropriate response to the effects of climate change through the establishment of IWRM mechanisms (Water Agencies, Local Water Committees [LWC], water policing services). This article is a contribution to the contextual assessment of IWRM principles perceived by institutional stakeholders (General Directorate of Water Resources, Permanent Secretary for IWRM, Water agencies, etc.) as being suitable modalities for adapting to the effects of climate variability and water users’ access to climate services in the Massili watershed (Upper Volta basin, Burkina Faso). The methodology is based on a socio-anthropological survey. Fifteen individual semi-directive interviews were carried out in December 2022 with a variety of actors of varying status in the communes of Ouagadougou, Tanghin-Dassouri, Saaba, Koubri, Dapelogo, Ziniaré, and Loumbila, using an interview guide. Six focus groups were also carried out. This study reveals that IWRM mechanisms (Water Agency, LWC) as translated by institutional actors do not consider endogenous hydro-socio-climatic knowledge and fail to effectively and sustainably address the exacerbation of the effects of climate variability, let alone ensure the provision of climate services to water resource users.