The Mékrou River basin, one of the six tributaries of the middle Niger basin, is shared between three countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger) and is characterised by the underdevelopment of its water infrastructure. This presents significant social, economic, environmental and political risks. Furthermore the region's weak capacity to buffer the effects of hydrological variability generates uncertainty and risks for economic activities. As water becomes scarcer compared to its rising demand, there are emerging fears of potential transboundary water conflicts, which will likely constrain the region’s growth. In this sense, there is a need in the region for increasing the long-term sustainability of agriculture and to foster integrated growth in all fields by developing resources, especially in the areas of energy, water resources, forestry exploitation, transport, communication and industry.

One of the fundamental aspects to start tackling all those issues is the need to understand the current status and provide an overview on different topics that affect the basin and define a baseline situation. To do so, an inventory of available datasets covering each of the sectors that have a relevant role in the region is needed, and so identify, gather and organize data available, both publicly and within the responsible national, regional and local organizations is crucial to fulfil future model requirements. This first attempt will serve to provide a frame under which the future water management system will be developed. This will be aimed at providing seamless integration of existing datasets and models, turning to be a common open platform for spatial decision making. In this sense the concept of system openness refers to the flexibility leading to the capability of integrating new knowledge in the analysis process at any later stage.

This document covers topics related to, among others, data related to the general status of the environment including climate, geology and soils, hydrology, hydrogeology, soils, land cover, etc. as well as additional added value maps that will serve as a discussion basis and will facilitate the identification of drawbacks and advantages related to future developments. Most of the collected data is presented as a compendium of maps that have been added in the document but are also available at the ‘Mékrou Water4Growth Group´ within the Aquaknow platform managed by the JRC. Along with the maps, a brief description of data sources and their characteristics, as well as a description and general statistics of the study area are presented. In order to have a harmonized set of information sources, there is an ongoing activity related to the development and setup of a geodatabase for the storage of all current and future data. Together with the geodatabase setup, the development of a Geographical Information System is also being carried out. Such a system will be accessible by users using dedicated GIS services (i.e. WMS, WFS) according to Open Geospatial Consortium standards that allows data visualization, querying and optionally, editing.

Finally, it should be taken into account the coarse resolution of some datasets, thus caution must be paid when interpreting some outcomes at local scale. However, this document should be considered as a “live” document, meaning that new maps will be generated as new data is identified and processed.

This summary of the country water resources profile CWRP has observed that intensifying competition for water resources by agricultural, industrial, and domestic users will continue to put a lot of pressure on water resources. The cause for this situation was identified as having been; (i) the country not being able to challenge its scientists to solve some water-related developmental issues, and (ii) research not receiving adequate attention, which has led to policy and decision-making remaining uninformed. Further, the report identified the following research and development gaps in the water sector, which must be addressed in order ‘to ensure that every Zambian has fair access to the resource and related services regardless of their economic and social status’. The report has also noted that there is inadequate research being undertaken in the country to:

• Determine the impact of land use changes in areas of rapidly growing populations on the country’s surface- and ground-water resources.
• Assess capacities of wastewater treatment plants in the country’s major cities (environmental audit of the treatment plants).
• Assess the amount of available water resources in the country, especially groundwater.
• Assess effects of climate change scenarios and drivers on the country’s surface water and groundwater resources.
• Seek solutions to some existing societal challenges, including those that utilize indigenous knowledge.

In this regard, the report concludes that for Zambia’s water to sustain lives and meet the socio-economic needs of the country’s citizens there is need to (i) support research activities in the acquisition of water data through continuous monitoring, (ii) analyse and assess data and information, and (iii) provide relevant feedback to decision makers and stakeholders. To attain these noble causes, the Government of the Republic of Zambia should recognise the importance of, and support research and research institutions with adequate resources and challenging them to provide solutions to some or most of the identified issues/challenges and gaps in the country’s water sector.