Niger River Project

After our sojourn in Djenne, the feeling that we want to get back on the river is strong. It’s over two weeks since we were last in Djoliba and we’re getting withdrawal symptoms.

Our next goal is the Niger’s so-called Inland Delta – a vast wetland area covering some 30,000sq km, where the river spreads out into an intricate network of channels, creeks and lakes. At the heart of the delta is the huge Lac Debo, more an inland sea than a lake, especially at this time year before the dry season really gets a grip.

I’ve organised a guide through a Dutch charity, Wetlands International, which is working on various projects to conserve the wildlife and biodiversity of the delta. We arrange for a pinasse (a large covered pirogue complete with outboard) to take us on a four-day excursion into the delta to get a feeling for the area and meet some of the villagers who manage to scratch out a living in this watery world.

We nose out of Mopti early on a Sunday morning. Mopti is the largest and busiest port town on Mali’s stretch of the Niger, and the best starting point for any trips to the delta.

It’s a brilliant morning, bright and fresh. Already, the local Bozo fishermen are hard at work, gliding across the river in their pirogues, casting nets and pulling in glittering heaps of fish. Oumar, the helmsman of our boat, tries to weave a course through them, but more often than not ploughs straight ahead, leaving them to get out of our way.

The roof of the pinasse provides a perfect platform for watching Niger life slip by. We pass countless villages, where children run along the bank waving and shouting “toubab” (whiteman) as we glide by. Humble as these villages are, almost all of them boast an intricate mosque, like scaled-down versions of the great mud edifice at Djenne.

Soon the sun is too ferocious to allow sitting on the upper deck, so we retire to the cool shade below. Sine, our guide, begins to explain to us some of the rich bird and wildlife that lives – or lived – in the delta.

It’s a tragic but all too familiar tale: although still a highly important habitat for migrating birds, the delta today supports only a fraction of the mamalian and reptilian life it once did. A combination of hunting, population growth, deforestation and desertification have all but wiped out the area’s once rich wildlife, and the lions, crocodiles, elephants and other game that once roamed here have either been killed or found other places to live. Weltands International is doing valuable work to stop this trend, particularly where the delta’s birdlife is concerned, but for the area’s other wildlife, it’s probably too late.

After about four hours’ cruising down one of the Niger’s many channels, we reach an area where the bank drops away, the horizon opens out and there’s little to see but water, vegetation and more water. Occasionally, tiny villages punctuate the scene, somehow clinging to the few patches of dry land in the area. This is the beginning of Lac Debo.

The river channel we’re following twists and turns through the marshland, one of many that criss-cross the delta. Somehow, unneringly Oumar manages to pick the right one, and soon we enter the lake proper.

To our left, the lake is so large you can’t see across it. Straight ahead there is a distant shoreline of sand and bushes. This is the first hint that, in spite of the predominance of water around us, we’re heading into the world’s largest desert. The contrast is a sharp reminder of the fragility of existence in this remote place and a graphic demonstration, if any were needed, that here the Niger is life.

Tags: Lac Debo, Travel

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