Senegal River Flood Runs Far Below Normal, Threatening Northern Harvests

Senegal · AGRICULTURE

The yearly flood that waters the floodplain fields of northern Senegal has largely failed to arrive. In Podor, farmers who plant as the water recedes are watching a river two metres lower than last year.

A weak Senegal River flood is threatening the next harvest in Podor, a farming department on Senegal’s northern border with Mauritania. The river there stood at 3.19 metres on 22 September, against 5.17 metres on the same day in 2025.

Senegal is a West African country of about 18.9 million people. Its northern valley is the focus of a government drive to grow more of the rice the country now buys abroad.

A flood that matters more than rain

Along the middle valley, many families farm in two places. They sow millet, sorghum and groundnuts on higher rain-fed land, known locally as the jeeri.

Then they plant the walo, the low floodplain that the river covers each year. When the water retreats, the soaked soil carries sorghum and vegetables through the dry months.

That system depends on a proper flood. This year, the Dakar news site Seneweb reported on 22 September that rains had been poor and the river had barely risen.

“No rain, no flood, no recession farming,” a farmer near Ogo, in the Matam area upstream, told the site. He said he had counted on the walo to make up for a poor rain-fed crop.

The gauges tell the story

Seneweb’s figures for 22 September showed this year’s Senegal River flood far below 2025 along the whole Senegalese course. At Matam it read 3.97 metres, against 8.26 metres a year earlier.

At Kidira, on the Falémé tributary, the level was 2.77 metres, against 7.47 metres. The flow released at Diama dam, near the river mouth, was 682 cubic metres per second, against 1,610 a year before.

At Podor itself the gauge rose only 4 centimetres in a day, to 3.24 metres on 25 September, Seneweb and PressAfrik reported. The same day in 2025 it stood at 5.22 metres.

Authorities still urged people living and working by the river to stay alert. They asked them to watch children and animals and secure boats, fishing nets and motor pumps.

A late rise upstream

From 28 September, the water began climbing again in the upper basin. Senego and Seneweb reported rises of more than one metre in a day at Kidira and Bakel.

By 30 September, Kidira read 7.82 metres and Matam 5.98 metres, Seneweb reported. Podor, far downstream, had crept up only to 3.45 metres.

No station had reached its alert level, and Bakel remained more than two metres below its 10-metre mark. The question for farmers is whether this late pulse spreads wide enough downstream to soak the walo.

A district already under strain

Podor was already on the government’s worry list. On 31 July, the daily Le Quotidien reported six departments in severe food insecurity during the lean season, Podor and Matam among them.

The prime minister instructed the finance ministry to release the necessary resources urgently under the national response plan. The lean season is the hungry gap before the main harvest comes in.

Herders are squeezed too. One told Seneweb that last year they fought to save livestock from high water, while this year they were searching for grass.

Without flood-fed crops there is also less sorghum stubble for cattle to graze. He said herders would have to move their animals earlier than usual.

Irrigation is not a full answer

Senegal’s plan for the valley rests on irrigated rice, pumped from the river rather than waiting for the flood. That model has its own bottlenecks in Podor.

In late March, the departmental prefect, Amadoune Diop, chaired a review meeting in Podor. Officials reported delays by some contractors in preparing land for the dry-season rice crop.

Senelec, the national electricity company, promised to install the power meters that irrigation pumps need as quickly as possible, AllAfrica reported. Without power, pumps cannot water the fields on time.

The complaints have not gone away. On Thursday 1 October, agriculture minister Cheikhou Oumar Ba toured irrigated schemes in Podor, where growers at Gamadji and Guèdué raised worn pumping stations, scarce machinery, energy and storage, Seneweb reported.

An agricultural technician quoted by Seneweb called for short-cycle seeds, motor pumps for off-season farming and plans to feed livestock. Those are the short-term levers if the flood stays weak.

Why it matters beyond Senegal

The Senegal River is shared by Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Guinea. A poor flood affects farmers and herders on both banks, and pushes some to move earlier in search of pasture.

For Senegal, a smaller recession harvest means more reliance on bought-in grain in a country that already imports much of its rice. That links Podor’s riverbanks to Africa: The New Scramble for land, water and food security.

What to watch next

The first test is the river gauge at Podor over the next two weeks. If the late rise upstream arrives in force, some walo fields could still be planted.

The second is whether the emergency funds ordered in July reach households before the next lean season. In a year of weak flooding, that gap may open earlier than usual.

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