overgrazing, deforestation, and soil erosion aggravated by drought are contributing to desertification; limited natural freshwater resources away from the Senegal, which is the only perennial river; locust infestation
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
particulate matter emissions: 40.82 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)
carbon dioxide emissions: 2.74 megatons (2016 est.)
methane emissions: 6.16 megatons (2020 est.)
desert; constantly hot, dry, dusty
agricultural land: 38.5% (2018 est.)
arable land: 0.4% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 38.1% (2018 est.)
forest: 0.2% (2018 est.)
other: 61.3% (2018 est.)
urban population: 57.7% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 3.84% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
forest revenues: 1.3% of GDP (2018 est.)
coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)
degree of risk: very high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
animal contact diseases: rabies
respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Mauritania is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
severe localized food insecurity: due to shortfall in agricultural production and economic downturn - according to the latest analysis, about 878,000 people are assessed to be in need of humanitarian assistance between June and August 2022 as a result of shortfalls in cereal and livestock production in 2021 and reduced incomes owing to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy (2022)
municipal solid waste generated annually: 454,000 tons (2009 est.)
municipal solid waste recycled annually: 36,320 tons (2009 est.)
percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 8% (2009 est.)
Senegal river mouth (shared with Guinea [s], Senegal and Mali) - 1,641 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth
Atlantic Ocean drainage: Niger (2,261,741 sq km), Senegal (456,397 sq km)
Senegalo-Mauritanian Basin, Taodeni-Tanzerouft Basin
municipal: 95.4 million cubic meters (2017 est.)
industrial: 31.8 million cubic meters (2017 est.)
agricultural: 1.223 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
11.4 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
NOTE: The information regarding Mauritania on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Mauritania 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Mauritania 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 01 Dec 23, Copyright © 23 ITA all rights reserved.