LAND USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF WATERLOGGED AREAS -A CASE STUDY IN AFRICA-

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The wetlands like dambo, fadama and mbuga which are seasonally waterlogged have playd an important role for agricultural production and pasturing in Africa. These wetland is said to cover more than 3 per cent of total area in Africa. Dambo in Zambia, for example covers an area of about 4.6 per cent of the total.As agricultural production had become an important quest in Sub-Saharan Africa, these wetland areas have begun to get much attention because of its moist conditions. Since 1980s when many of African countries adopted Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), the value of wetland has begun widely acknowledged. Many of drastic changes caused by SAP,such as liberalization of agricultural market, cutback subsidy for farm inputs, retrenchment of public services, devaluation of local currencies, and plus the democratizasion in politics, has an effect to intensify the cultivation of the wetland. People has begun to use the land to produce not only vegetables but also foodstuffs all through a year.As the environment of these wetland is very vulnerable and intermingled in nature, more wetland area is brought under cultivation, the more environmental problems occur. The field studies which have carried out in Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria, have made clear that the rapid socio-economic change in Africa today had strong influence on the use of the wetland. Intensive use of these wetland has contributed to the increase in agricultural production, however, it also contributed to the promotion of the land degradation, desiccation and soil erosion.This shows that the rapid socio-economic changes in Africa today may have strong impacts on the environmental degradation in the future.