WATERWAYS QUANTIFICATION AND EVALUATION FOR UTILIZATION MAXIMIZATION OF FRESH WATER BODIES IN THE MAINLAND AND ISLANDS OF WEST AFRICA

This work underscore the growing global interest in regional natural waterways and their potential exigency in transforming logistic capabilities. The main intent of this work was to quantify and evaluate the waterways of freshwater bodies in the selected areas. Upon pre - site scientific field survey of the study sub - areas, otherwise the concerned countries, their geocodes were deployed in the acquisition of the geo - coordinates while their primary and secondary data for the quantified waterways were decoded with necessary evaluation. Total waterways value of 16663 km, with average of 1111 km, and waterways to land area ratio of 15:1459625 on total, and 1:293 on average were obtained for the fifteen countries in the mainland of West Africa. Nigeria possessed the highest waterways capacity in West Africa with 8600 km, and, with waterways to land area ratio of 1:107, and also with the ratio of waterways of Nigeria to the whole mainland - land area of West Africa recording 1: 568. The republic of Togo had the smallest waterways capacity in West Africa recording 50 km, with ratios of 1:1136 waterways to the land area of Togo, and waterways of Togo to the whole mainland - land area of West Africa, at 1: 9770. Mali recorded the only country in West Africa that possessed more waterways than the land area with ratio of 1:0.6. Also, in the islands of West Africa, Cape Vade and Saint Helena possessed 4,033 and 410 sq. Km land areas respectively with little or no quantifiable waterways. Conclusively, the continental sub area possessed one of the most waterways utilizable freshwater resources in Africa and global