West Africa – Water Resources Vulnerability Using a Multidimensional Approach: Case Study of Volta Basin. Climate Vulnerability: Understanding and Addressing Threats to Essential Resources.

Changes in climatic conditions have been evident over West Africa in the past decades. Decrease in rainfall amount led to severe droughts during the 1970s and 1980s. There has been a shift of the climatic zones in a southerly direction. Consequently, most of the Volta Basin in Burkina Faso is now located in the Sahelian and Sudano-Sahelian zones. As a consequence of instability in the rainfall pattern, many rivers have dried up, large tracts of land cover have been degraded, and the water table is drawing down.