Water harvesting: a potential means for water security in the Far North Region of Cameroon

Type Journal Article - Agricultural Research
Title Water harvesting: a potential means for water security in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Author(s)
Volume 3
Issue 4
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 331-338
URL http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40003-014-0133-7
Abstract
The role of water harvesting as a strategy in adapting to the current climatic variability and change has really
not been exploited in the Far North region of Cameroon. The region is threatened by water shortage and climate variability.
This paper seeks to emphasize the availability of sufficient water which could be harvested to ensure water security for both
domestic and agricultural purposes. Temperature and precipitation data between the years of 1957 and 2006 were analyzed
to observe their different trends across these years. Standardized precipitation index (SPI) was then computed to determine
the hydrological drought trend for the region. Remote sensing techniques were used to compare land use and land cover
dynamics between 1987 and 2005. The obtained results show that temperature seems to remain constant but rainfall has
decreased; however, the amount of rainfall is significantly high when compared with other regions with little or no water
problem. The hydrological drought analysis using SPI shows a downward trend but did not depict severe drought conditions
in the area. And applying the Mann–Kendall trend analysis revealed that there was no statistically significant
change with the overall downward SPI, temperature, and rainfall trends. Furthermore, the remote sensing studies revealed
an increase in vegetation, water resources, and settlement, whereas a decrease was observed in the total area covered by
farmlands and bare soils. The paper concluded by proposing recommendations to ensure water security for both domestic
and agriculture purposes in the study area.

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