French Assistance To Develop Mauritania

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30451, 27 May 1964, Page 23

French Assistance To Develop Mauritania

t.v.Z.P.A.Reuter—Copyright > NOUAKCHOTT (Mauritania). Mauritania, a flat, arid land of nomadic population in West Africa, is trying desperately to find out more about its own people and natural resources. The National Assembly recently approved a fouryear interim plan to explore the country’s potential wealth. It is only a first step towards development projects. A big factor in preparing Mauritania for economic development is to find out more about what it has to offer. Although it is one of the largest countries in Africa, it is also one about which the least is known. This does not mean that Mauritania is unmapped or unexplored for this desert land has exerted a fascination on travellers for many centuries. But the planners of 1964 need more facts than are found in travellers’ tales. Mauritania is moving into the age of scientific and technical research.

The planning experts, in particular Mr Jacques Casati, of the French Co-operation Ministry, have grouped the facts known about the country. It is evident that even the most elementary statistics, such as population, are the subjects of informed guesswork. No accurate census of the whole country has ever been taken. It is estimated that there are about 900,000 people in Mauritania. They are mainly “white” and “black” Moors with an important admixture of Negro tribes. Of the entire population some three-quarters are rural nomads—breeders of cattle who move about in search of water and vegetation. In modern terms, not enough is known about the life of this nomad population to allow for realistic planning for their future. The Mauritanian government needs to know what they eat, what they produce, and how much they learn.

The nomads breed cattle and have done for centuries, but the economic planners do not know how much meat is produced and how much of it the people eat themselves. The important question is how much of this meat could be made available for sale in Mauritania’s towns or even abroad if “marketing” could be organised on modern commercial lines. Research into water and mineral resources is as important as research into the people’s habits. Water indicates the life of most of Mauritania’s people. It is minerals, not agriculture, on which the future wealth of the country must depend. Mauritania is 85 per cent desert and almost unbrokenly flat. There Is little rain. Because of this, half the country is empty and there are no natural features to persuade the nomadic peoples to settle in any region. The development of the outlying regions depends on

finding “deep” water and programmes of hydraulic research, already well under way since independence, are to be stepped up in the fouryear plan. The problem of stabilising the population is acute as the government is aware that if Mauritania is to develop into a modern state the people must acquire a feeling of “belonging” to a community. The traditional Moorish way of life is the antithesis of this ideal. To provide any real wealth, resources under the soil are the country’s best hope. In this field, the need is more fbr “commercial survey” than for scientific research. Exploitation of Mauritania’s important iron ore deposits by the international Miferma combine is already becoming the nation’s biggest financial asset. The next step is to find ways of attracting foreign investment to exploit copper and gypsum deposits which have already been discovered. They are known to be of high quality, but they are located in an area which is commercially inaccessible.