AECID - Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo

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Name: Mauritania.

Area: 1,025,521 km2.

Mediterranean coastline: None.

Population (World Bank data): 2.7 million.

Annual population growth (World Bank data): 2.7%.

Population distribution (World Bank data): 58% urban, 42% rural.

Human Development Index (2001 UNDP Report): 139 of 162.

Distribution by productive sectors (World Bank data): primary 22.4% of GDP, secondary 30.6% and tertiary 47%.

Access to drinking water (2001 UNDP Report): 76%.

Annual per capita energy consumption (IUCN system): Not available.

Geographical description: The Sahara desert accounts for two thirds of the country, so that the relief is abrupt, with broad extensions of dunes and rocky plateaux. Southward, the desert gives way to the Sahel savannah with some vegetation. To the southwest, there is a strip some 400 km long watered by the River Senegal, where agriculture is concentrated. Elevations range between 150m in the southwest and 460m in the northeast.

Climate: Throughout most of the country, daily temperatures reach 38ºC for more than six months a year, while dropping considerably at night. Annual precipitation is less than 130 mm in the north and up to 660 mm in the Senegal River Valley.

Natural resources: There is little plant and animal life in northern Mauritania. There are however to the south acacias and lines and monkeys in the steppe green belt. The most important natural resource is the iron mineral deposits in the Fdérik region. There are also deposits of phosphate, sulphur, copper and gypsum.

Main environmental problems: The Sahara desert accounts for eighty percent of Mauritania. Drought, overgrazing and deforestation have worryingly increased the risk of desertification. Agricultural production is maintained despite the shortage of water, mainly from aquifers, although high population growth has led to a significant reduction in per capita output. The project to build a dam on the River Senegal, being studied by the Mauritanian authorities, would increase and regulate water supply but would also inevitably be to the detriment of some ecosystems.