III.

Economic Importance

About 5,000 km (about 3,000 mi) of the Niger and its tributaries are navigable. Commercial navigation begins at the town of Kouroussa, in Guinea. Several rapids—such as at Koulikoro in Mali, Atakora on the Niger-Benin border, and Jebba in Nigeria—interrupt through traffic. Locks permit boats to bypass the Kainji Dam. Agricultural products and refined petroleum are transported on the river. Passenger travel is important along the upper-middle Niger, where road and rail connections are poorly developed. Nigeria’s major river ports, including Onitsha, Idah, Ajaokuta, Lokoja, Jebba, and Yelwa, were upgraded in the late 1980s to encourage greater use of inland waterways. Several ocean ports on the Niger Delta, notably Port Harcourt, Sapele, Warri, Bonny, and Burutu, handle exports of petroleum and agricultural products.

Fishing is an important activity, supplying food far beyond the Niger Valley. Most of the catch is taken from the delta areas. The catch has fallen to less than half its pre-1970 level, however, as a result of drought, increased water diversion for irrigation, dam construction, and overfishing.

The Niger plays a significant role in local livestock raising, except along its lower course, where the tsetse fly is prevalent. Herders, primarily the Fulani, depend on the river for water and on its floodplain for dry-season pastures for their cattle, sheep, and goats.

Irrigation schemes on the Niger have helped expand agricultural development in the Niger Basin. In 1932, when most of the Niger River Basin was part of French West Africa, the French colonial administration attempted to develop about 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of the inland delta area of Mali for irrigated cotton and rice cultivation. Dams were built at Sotuba, near Bamako, and at Markala to control water levels for irrigation. But development of the inland delta fell far short of original expectations. Other irrigation schemes exist, especially in Nigeria downstream from the Kainji Dam and along tributaries such as the Sokoto and Kaduna rivers.

The largest dam and hydroelectric plant on the Niger is the Kainji Dam, completed in 1968. Energy supplies are unreliable, however, because of frequently inadequate water levels in the river, poor maintenance of infrastructure, and growing demand. Use of the Niger’s water is presently relatively unregulated, but newer dams constructed on the Niger’s tributaries and proposed new dams on the Niger itself threaten to reduce both the river’s discharge and the deposition of fertile silt on the floodplain.

Since 1962 the Niger Delta has been the center of Nigeria’s large petroleum industry. In addition to onshore and offshore wells, petroleum-linked development includes oil and gas-fired electrical plants and the Port Harcourt refinery. Local and international groups have protested the adverse environmental effects of the petroleum industry. These include oil spills that damage farmland and waterways; the burning of excess gas, which is blamed for health problems and reduced crop yields; and the excessive clearing of forest in connection with petroleum exploration and development.