Niger Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

overgrazing; soil erosion; deforestation; desertification; contaminated water; inadequate potable water; wildlife populations (such as elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, and lion) threatened because of poaching and habitat destruction

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 70.8 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 2.02 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 22.99 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south

Land use

agricultural land: 35.1% (2018 est.)

arable land: 12.3% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.1% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 22.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 1% (2018 est.)

other: 63.9% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 17.1% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 4.72% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 4.41% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.03% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

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

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

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; Niger 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

Food insecurity

exceptional shortfall in aggregate food production/supplies: due to internal conflict and shortfall in cereal production - according to the latest analysis, about 4.4 million people are estimated to need humanitarian food assistance between June and August 2022, reflecting worsening conflicts and security conditions, and unfavorable weather that resulted in a sharp fall in cereal production in 2021; additionally, higher year-on-year prices of food continue to constrain access to food, aggravating conditions (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 1,865,646 tons (1993 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 74,626 tons (2005 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 4% (2005 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

fresh water lake(s): Lake Chad (endorheic lake shared with Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon) - 10,360-25,900 sq km
note - area varies by season and year to year

Major rivers (by length in km)

Niger (shared with Guinea [s], Mali, Benin, and Nigeria [m]) - 4,200 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: Niger (2,261,741 sq km)
Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: Lake Chad (2,497,738 sq km)

Major aquifers

Lake Chad Basin, Lullemeden-Irhazer Basin, Murzuk-Djado Basin

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 178.9 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 36 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 1.536 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

34.05 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Niger 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 Niger 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Niger 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.