ON THE TRAILS OF CONFLICTS AROUND THE USE OF WATER RESOURCES OF THE DAM OF SALBISGO IN BURKINA FASO

The growing needs of water and the multiplicity of its uses, increased pressure on hydraulic structures, leading to conflicts among users. The dam of Salbisgo in the province of Boulkiemdé in the Central-western of Burkina Faso is no exception to this trend. This article analyses the diversity of water use conflicts around this dam and their underlying manifestations. The methodology is based on secondary and primary data collected from the dam users and field observations. The result of the analyses revealed that, the most recurrent typology of conflicts is the one among market gardeners and Breeders, fishermen and market gardeners, landowners and non-native users. Moreover, fishermen face internal conflicts reflecting their highly contradictory modus operandi. Nevertheless, only a few isolated cases of conflicts occurred around the use of the dam. Conflicts between market gardeners and livestock farmers are sometimes violent, but in most of the reported cases, they subside immediately. The market gardeners, many of whom have unfenced plots, accuse the breeders of allowing their animals to roam freely, causing damage to a large part of their crops or seedlings, and in some cases to the entire planted area. Breeders justify letting their herds roam because of the lack of grazing during the dry season, when market gardening is in full swing. Users of the dam's water do not directly perceive the pressure that their various activities exert on the dam. Overall, it should be noted that these conflicts do not have the same intensity, because some are estimated as ‘‘high’’, ‘‘medium’’ or ‘‘low’’. All these conflicts have an impact on the governance of the dam as well as its sustainability.