Groundwater features in Hoedh el Chargui, Mauritania

Abstract

The Hodh el Chargui, a region located in the south-east of the Mauritania at 1000 km to the capital city of Nouakchott, is one ofthe poorer and remoter areas of the country. It is characterised by hardand in rural environment. Farmers and agro-pastoralists are the maineconomic actors and completely depend on natural resources. A specificproject entitled “Reducing Agro-pastoral Vulnerability and ImprovingResilience in Hodh el Chargui”, funded by European Union, has beenimplemented in the Program “Institutional Strengthening in Mauritaniatowards Agricultural and Pastoral Resilience (RIMRAP)”. Theaims of the project are the strengthening of the resilience of Hodh elChargui communities and the reduction of their vulnerability to crisis,assuring access to natural resources and their sustainable use. In particular,the water resource is fundamental to assure the developmentof the traditional agricultural and pastoral activities and guaranteeproper health conditions.The present study reports the results obtained from a census of the wellin the Hodh el Chargui, their distribution in the region and the mainfeatures of groundwater resource