Water Harvesting: A Potential Means for Water Security in the Far North Region of Cameroon

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.