BRUSSELS, Belgium - 3rd May 2017 - Wetlands International launched a report at the Red Cross EU Office in Brussels, aimed at highlighting to policymakers the relationship between the health of wetland ecosystems and involuntary human migration in the Sahel region of Africa. Entitled ‘Water Shocks: Wetlands and Human Migration in the Sahel’ the publication examines how poor water management leads to degradation of ecosystems, and is an overlooked cause of human migration, including to Europe.

Document published in 2011 by OSS (Sahel and Sahara Observatory), focused on the design and implementation of a hydrogeological model of the Iullemeden Aquifer System. The aquifer, extending through Mali, Niger and Nigeria, is one of the two outmost important groundwater systems in the Niger basin, with groundwater flowing mainly from north to the south.