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Powers of the President of the United States
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The President of the United States has numerous powers, including those explicitly granted by Article II of the United States Constitution.
The Constitution explicitly assigned the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors. The president may make treaties which need to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate. The president may also appoint Article III judges and some officers with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. In the condition of a Senate recess, the president may make a temporary appointment.
Contents
[hide]
1 Executive powers
2 Powers related to legislation
3 Powers of appointment
4 Executive clemency
5 Foreign affairs
6 Emergency powers
7 Executive privilege
8 Constraints on presidential power
9 See also
10 References
Executive powers[edit]
Within the executive branch itself, the president has broad powers to manage national affairs and the priorities of the government. The president can issue rules, regulations, and instructions called executive orders, which have the binding force of law upon federal agencies but do not require approval of the United States Congress. Executive orders are subject to judicial review and interpretation.
The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 put additional responsibilities on the presidency for the preparation of the United States federal budget, although Congress was required to approve it.[1] The act required the Office of Management and Budget to assist the president with the preparation of the budget. Previous presidents had the privilege of impounding funds as they saw fit, however the United States Supreme Court revoked the privilege in 1998 as a violation of the Presentment Clause. The power was available to all presidents and was regarded as a power inherent to the office. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was passed in response to large-scale power exercises by President Nixon. The act also created the Congressional Budget Office as a legislative counterpoint to the Office of Management and Budget.
The president, as the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces, may also call into federal service individual state units of the National Guard. In times of war or national emergency, the Congress may grant the president broader powers to manage the national economy and protect the security of the United States, but these powers were not expressly granted by the United States Constitution.[2] During the Vietnam War, in 1973, Congress expeditiously passed the War Powers Act and severely limited the ability of the President to conduct warfare without Congressional approval. Congress was constitutionally provided the power to declare the war,[3] but if the president needed to send the troops to other countries for emergency reasons, approved statutes required the notification of Congress within forty-eight hours. For any time beyond sixty days, further congressional approval was required.
Powers related to legislation[edit]
The president has several options when presented with a bill from Congress. If the president agrees with the bill, he can sign it into law within ten days of receipt. If the president opposes the bill, he can veto it and return the bill to Congress with a veto message suggesting changes unless the Congress is out of session then the president may rely on a pocket veto.
Presidents are required to approve all of a bill or none of it; selective vetoes have been prohibited. In 1996, Congress gave President Bill Clinton a line-item veto over parts of a bill that required spending federal funds. The Supreme Court, in Clinton v. New York City, found Clinton's veto of pork-barrel appropriations for New York City to be unconstitutional because only a constitutional amendment could give the president line-item veto power.[4]
When a bill is presented for signature, the president may also issue a signing statement with expressions of their opinion on the constitutionality of a bill's provisions. The president may even declare them unenforceable but the Supreme Court has yet to address this issue.[5]
Congress may override vetoes with a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. The process has traditionally been difficult and relatively rare. The threat of a presidential veto has usually provided sufficient pressure for Congress to modify a bill so the President would be willing to sign it.
Much of the legislation dealt with by Congress is drafted at the initiative of the executive branch.[6] The president may personally propose legislation in annual and special messages to Congress including the annual State of the Union address and joint sessions of Congress. If Congress has adjourned without acting on proposals, the president may call a special session of the Congress.
Beyond these official powers, the U.S. president, as a leader of his political party and the United States government, holds great sway over public opinion whereby they may influence legislation.
To improve the working relationship with Congress, presidents in recent years have set up an Office of Legislative Affairs. Presidential aides have kept abreast of all important legislative activities.
Powers of appointment[edit]
The President of the United States has several different appointment powers.
Before taking office, the president-elect must appoint more than 6,000 new federal positions.[7] The appointments range from top officials at U.S. government agencies, to the White House Staff, and members of the United States diplomatic corps. Many, but not all, of these positions at the highest levels are appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.[8]
The president also nominates persons to fill federal judicial vacancies, including federal judges, such as members of the United States Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. These nominations require Senate confirmation, and this can provide a major stumbling block for presidents who wish to shape the federal judiciary in a particular ideological stance.
As head of the executive branch, the president appoints the top officials for all federal agencies. These positions are listed in the Plum Book which outlines more than seven thousand appointive positions in the government. Many of these appointments are made by the president. In the case of ten agencies, the president is free to appoint a new agency head. For example, it is not unusual for the CIA's Director or NASA's Administrator to be changed by the president. Other agencies that deal with federal regulation such as the Federal Reserve Board or the Securities and Exchange Commission have set terms that will often outlast presidential terms. For example, governors of the Federal Reserve serve for fourteen years to ensure agency independence. The president also appoints members to the boards of directors for government-owned corporations such as Amtrak. The president can also make a recess appointment if a position needs to be filled while Congress is not in session.[9]
In the past, presidents could appoint members of the United States civil service. This use of the spoils system allowed presidents to reward political supporters with jobs. Following the assassination of President James Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, Congress instituted a merit-based civil service in which positions are filled on a nonpartisan basis.[10] The Office of Personnel Management now oversees the staffing of 2.8 million federal jobs in the federal bureaucracy.
The president must also appoint his staff of aides, advisers, and assistants. These individuals are political appointments and are not subject to review by the Senate. All members of the staff serve "at the pleasure of the President".[11][12] Since 1995, the president has been required to submit an annual report to Congress listing the name and salary of every employee of the White House Office. The 2011 report listed 454 employees.[13]
Executive clemency[edit]
See also: List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the President of the United States
Article II of the United States Constitution gives the president the power of clemency. The two most commonly used clemency powers are those of pardon and commutation. A pardon is an official forgiveness for an acknowledged crime. Once a pardon is issued, all punishment for the crime is waived. The person accepting the pardon must, however, acknowledge that the crime did take place.[14] The president can only grant pardons for federal offences.[15] The president maintains the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice to review all requests for pardons. The president can also commute a sentence which, in effect, changes the punishment to time served. While the guilty party may be released from custody or not have to serve out a prison term, all other punishments still apply.
Most pardons are issued as oversight of the judicial branch, especially in cases where the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are considered too severe. This power can check the legislative and judicial branches by altering punishment for crimes. Presidents can issue blanket amnesty to forgive entire groups of people. For example, President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers who had fled to Canada. Presidents can also issue temporary suspensions of prosecution or punishment in the form of respites. This power is most commonly used to delay federal sentences of execution.
Pardons can be controversial when they appear to be politically motivated. President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of White House staffer Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Foreign affairs[edit]
Under the Constitution, the president is the federal official that is primarily responsible for the relations of the United States with foreign nations. The president appoints ambassadors, ministers, and consuls (subject to confirmation by the Senate) and receives foreign ambassadors and other public officials.[2] With the Secretary of State, the president manages all official contacts with foreign governments.
On occasion, the president may personally participate in summit conferences where heads of state meet for direct consultation.[16] For example, President Wilson led the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 after World War I; President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Allied leaders during World War II; and every president sits down with world leaders to discuss economic and political issues and to reach agreements.
Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments,[17] and negotiate treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds of the Senate. The president may also negotiate executive agreements with foreign powers that are not subject to Senate confirmation.[18]
Emergency powers[edit]
The Constitution does not expressly grant the president additional powers in times of national emergency. However, many scholars think that the Framers implied these powers because the structural design of the Executive Branch enables it to act faster than the Legislative Branch. Because the Constitution remains silent on the issue, the courts cannot grant the Executive Branch these powers when it tries to wield them. The courts will only recognize a right of the Executive Branch to use emergency powers if Congress has granted such powers to the president.[19]
A claim of emergency powers was at the center of President Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus without Congressional approval in 1861. Lincoln claimed that the rebellion created an emergency that permitted him the extraordinary power of unilaterally suspending the writ. With Chief Justice Roger Taney sitting as judge, the Federal District Court of Maryland struck down the suspension in Ex Parte Merryman, although Lincoln ignored the order. [20]
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt similarly invoked emergency powers when he issued an order directing that all Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast be placed into internment camps during World War II. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this order in Korematsu v. United States. [21]
Harry Truman declared the use of emergency powers when he nationalized private steel mills that failed to produce steel because of a labor strike in 1952.[22] With the Korean War ongoing, Truman asserted that he could not wage war successfully if the economy failed to provide him with the material resources necessary to keep the troops well-equipped.[23] The U.S. Supreme Court, however, refused to accept that argument in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, voting 6-3 that neither Commander in Chief powers nor any claimed emergency powers gave the president the authority to unilaterally seize private property without Congressional legislation. [24]
Executive privilege[edit]
Executive privilege gives the president the ability to withhold information from the public, Congress, and the courts in national security and diplomatic affairs.[25] George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, Washington's action created the precedent for privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed audio tapes to a special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that privilege was not absolute. The Court reasoned that the judiciary’s interest in the “fair administration of criminal justice” outweighed President Nixon’s interest in keeping the evidence secret.[26] Later President Bill Clinton lost in federal court when he tried to assert privilege in the Lewinsky affair. The Supreme Court affirmed this in Clinton v. Jones, which denied the use of privilege in cases of civil suits.[27]
Constraints on presidential power[edit]
Because of the vast array of presidential roles and responsibilities, coupled with a conspicuous presence on the national and international scene, political analysts have tended to place great emphasis on the president's powers. Some have even spoken of "the imperial presidency", referring to the expanded role of the office that Franklin D. Roosevelt maintained during his term.
President Theodore Roosevelt famously called the presidency a "bully pulpit" from which to raise issues nationally, for when a president raises an issue, it inevitably becomes subject to public debate. A president's power and influence may be limited, but politically the president is certainly the most important power in Washington and, furthermore, is one of the most famous and influential of all Americans.
Though constrained by various other laws passed by Congress, the president's executive branch conducts most foreign policy, and their power to order and direct troops as commander-in-chief is quite significant (the exact limits of what a president's military powers without Congressional authorization are open to debate).
The Separation of Powers devised by the founding fathers was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power known as "checks and balances". For example, the President appoints judges and departmental secretaries, but these appointments must be approved by the Senate. The president can veto bills, or deny them. If he does that, the bill is sent back to Congress.
See also[edit]
Madisonian Model
National Emergencies Act
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
^ Jump up to: a b "Executive Power". Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School. 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
Jump up ^ "United States Constitution". United States Senate. September 17, 1787. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water
Jump up ^ Dewar, Hellen; Biskupic, Joan (1998-06-26). "Court Strikes Down Line-Item Veto". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Abramowitz, Michael (2006-07-24). "Bush's Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ "Presidential Powers". www.let.rug.nl. University of Groningen. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ http://nationalparalegal.edu/conlawcrimproc_public/federalism/presidentialpowers.asp
Jump up ^ Fairlie, John. "The Administrative Powers of the President". Michigan Law Review. Vol. 2, No. 3: pp. 190–210. JSTOR 1273781  – via JSTOR. CS1 maint: Extra text (link)
Jump up ^ "Annotated Constitution Article II". Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
Jump up ^ Ornstein, Norm. "How the Assassination of James A. Garfield Haunts VA Reform". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/senate-nominations.html Serving at the Pleasure of the President: The Nomination Papers of the United States Senate, 1789–1946
Jump up ^ https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/11183.html Executive Order 11183--Establishing the President's Commission on White House Fellowships
Jump up ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-05-08. Retrieved 2012-05-07. 2011 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff
Jump up ^ http://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon_instructions.htm
Jump up ^ "Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Executive Clemency | PARDON | Department of Justice". www.justice.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Costly, Andrew. "Foreign Policy - Constitutional Rights Foundation". www.crf-usa.org. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Schulman, Marc. "Recognition". historycentral.com. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ "Treaty vs. Executive Agreement". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Louis, Fisher (2007). Constitutional Conflicts Between Congress and the President. University Press of Kansas. pp. 249–272. ISBN 0700615342.
Jump up ^ Greenberg, David (2001-11-30). "Lincoln's Crackdown". Slate. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Konkoly, Toni. "The Supreme Court . Law, Power & Personality . Famous Dissents . Korematsu v. United States (1944) | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ Schwarz, Jon (2017-01-26). "Executive Orders Are Normal; Trump’s Are Only Appalling Because of What They Say". The Intercept. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
Jump up ^ "Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer 343 U.S. 579 (1952)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ "C-SPAN Landmark Cases | Youngstown V Sawyer". landmarkcases.c-span.org. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ "United States v. Nixon". Oyez. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
Jump up ^ "Summary of the Decision United States v. Nixon". landmarkcases.org. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
Jump up ^ "Presidential Immunity From Judicial Direction". Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
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text:
Niger River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 23 March 2018.
Jump to: navigation, search
"Quorra" redirects here. For the Tron: Legacy character, see List of Tron characters § Quorra.
This article is about the river. For the play or movie, see The River Niger.
Niger River
Fleuve Niger (Joliba, Orimiri, Isa Ber, Oya, gher n gheren)
The Niger at Koulikoro, Mali.
Name origin: Unknown. Likely from Berber for River gher
Countries
Guinea, Mali, Niger, Benin, Nigeria
Tributaries
- left Sokoto River, Kaduna River, Benue River, Anambra River
- right Bani River
Cities
Tembakounda, Bamako, Timbuktu, Niamey, Lokoja, Onitsha
Source
Guinea Highlands
Mouth
Atlantic Ocean
- location Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria
Length
4,180 km (2,597 mi)
Basin
2,117,700 km2 (817,649 sq mi)
Discharge
for Niger Delta
- average 5,589 m3/s (197,374 cu ft/s) [1]
- max 27,600 m3/s (974,685 cu ft/s) [2]
- min 500 m3/s (17,657 cu ft/s)
The Niger River (/ˈnaɪdʒər/; French: (le) fleuve Niger, pronounced [(lə) flœv niʒɛʁ]) is the principal river of West Africa, extending about 4,180 km (2,600 mi). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 (817,600 sq mi) in area.[3] Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea. It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Zaïre River). Its main tributary is the Benue River.
Contents
[hide]
1 Etymology
2 Geography
3 Unusual route
4 European exploration
5 Management and development
5.1 Niger Basin Charta and Investment Plan
5.2 Funding
5.3 River transport and dredging
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 Sources
10 External links
10.1 International law and the Niger River
Etymology[edit]
The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region:
Manding: Jeliba or Joliba "great river"
Igbo: Orimiri or Orimili "great water"
Tuareg: Egerew n-Igerewen "river of rivers"
Songhay: Isa Ber "big river", or simply Isa "the river" in Zarma
Hausa: Kwara
Yoruba: Oya
The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono published in Italian in 1550. The name may come from Berber phrase ger-n-ger meaning "river of rivers".[4] As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean, it was the source of most European knowledge of the region.
Medieval European maps applied the name Niger to the middle reaches of the river, in modern Mali, but Quorra (Kworra) to the lower reaches in modern Nigeria, as these were not recognized at the time as being the same river. When European colonial powers began to send ships along the west coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Senegal River was often postulated to be the seaward end of the Niger. The Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres (100 miles), was thought to be no more than coastal wetlands. It was only with the 18th-century visits of Mungo Park, who travelled down the Niger River and visited the great Sahelian empires of his day, that Europeans correctly identified the course of the Niger and extended the name to its entire course.
The modern nations of Nigeria and Niger take their names from the river, marking contesting national claims by colonial powers of the "Upper", "Lower" and "Middle" Niger river basin during the Scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century.
Geography[edit]
The great bend of the Niger River, seen from space, creates a green arc through the brown of the Sahel and Savanna. The green mass on the left is the Inner Niger Delta, and on the far left are tributaries of the Senegal River.
Mud houses on the center island at Lake Debo, a wide section of the Niger River.
The Niger River is a relatively "clear" river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger's headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt.[5] Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May.[5]
An unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases.[5] The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and lakes the size of Belgium; the seasonal floods make the Delta extremely productive for both fishing and agriculture.[6]
The river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in the Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. All the water from the Bani River, which flows into the Delta at Mopti, does not compensate for the 'losses'. The average 'loss' is estimated at 31 km3/year, but varies considerably between years.[7] The river is then joined by various tributaries, but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria measured in Yola was estimated at 25 km3/year before the 1980s and at 13.5 km3/year during the 1980s. The most important tributary of the Niger in Nigeria is the Benue River which merges with the river at Lokoja in Nigeria. The total volume of tributaries in Nigeria is six times higher than the inflow into Nigeria, with a flow near the mouth of the river standing at 177.0 km3/year before the 1980s and 147.3 km3/year during the 1980s.[7]
Unusual route[edit]
The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled geographers for two centuries. Its source is just 240 km (150 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs directly away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn near the ancient city of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.
This strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. The upper Niger, from the source west of Timbuktu to the bend in the current river near Timbuktu, once emptied into a now dry lake to the east northeast of Timbuktu, while the lower Niger started to the south of Timbuktu and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea. Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in stream capture of the upper Niger by the lower Niger.[8]
The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend, is an important area because it is the major river and source of water in that part of the Sahara desert. This made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara, and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao.
The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, which in turn is part of the larger African massive physiographic division.
European exploration[edit]
A reconstruction of the Ravenna Cosmography placed on a Ptolemaic map. The River Ger is visible at bottom. Note it is placed, following Ptolemy, as just south of the land of the Garamantes, in modern Libya, constricting the continent to the land from the central Sahara north.
1561 map of West Africa by Girolamo Ruscelli, from Italian translation of Ptolemy's Atlas "La Geograpfia Di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Nouvamente Tradatta Di Greco in Italiano". The writer was attempting to square information gleaned from Portuguese trade along the coast with Ptolemy's world map. The mouths of the Senegal River and Gambia River are postulated to flow into a lake, which also feeds the "Ger"/Niger River, which in turn feeds the "Nile Lake" and Nile River.
The origin of the river's name remains unclear. What is clear is that "Niger" was an appellation applied in the Mediterranean world from at least the Classical era, when knowledge of the area by Europeans was slightly better than fable. A careful study of Classical writings on the interior of the Sahara begins with Ptolemy, who mentions two rivers in the desert: the "Gir" and farther south, the "Ni-Gir".[9][10] The first has been since identified as the Wadi Ghir on the north western edge of the Tuat, along the borders of modern Morocco and Algeria.[9][11] This would likely have been as far as Ptolemy would have had consistent records. The Ni-Ger was likely speculation, although the name stuck as that of a river south of the Mediterranean's "known world". Suetonius reports Romans traveling to the "Ger", although in reporting any river's name derived from a Berber language, in which "gher" means "watercourse", confusion could easily arise.[12] Pliny connected these two rivers as one long watercourse which flowed (via lakes and underground sections) into the Nile,[13] a notion which persisted in the Arab and European worlds – and further added the Senegal River as the "Ger" – until the 19th century. The connection to the Nile River was made not simply because this was then known as the great river of "Aethiopia" (by which all lands south of the desert were called by Classical writers), but because the Nile flooded every summer. In Europe and Western Asia, floods are expected in the Spring, following snow melt. Classical authors explained the summer flood by calculating the time it took for flood waters to move down a river, and calculating how long the Nile must have been for the waters to travel from a mountain range in the spring. However the cycle of the Nile is influenced by tropical rain patterns instead of by melting snow, a characteristic unknown to the Classical Mediterranean world.[14] Through the descriptions of Leo Africanus and even Ibn Battuta – despite his visit to the river – the myth connecting the Niger to the Nile persisted.
While the true course of the Niger was presumably known to locals, it was a mystery to the outside world until the late 18th century. Ancient Romans such as Pliny (N.H. 5.10) thought that the river near Timbuktu was part of the Nile River, a belief also held by Ibn Battuta, while early European explorers thought that it flowed west and joined the Senegal River.
Many European expeditions to plot the river were unsuccessful. In 1788 the African Association was formed in England to promote the exploration of Africa in the hopes of locating the Niger, and in June 1796 the Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first European to lay eyes on the middle portion of the river since antiquity (and perhaps ever). The true course was established in his book Travels in the Interior of Africa, which appeared in 1799.[15] The African Association failed in assaults from the north (Tripoli), the east (Cairo), and the west (Gambia). The membership now proposed that an effort be made from the south. The site chosen in 1804 from which to strike inland was a British trading post in the Gulf of Guinea. Unbeknownst to him, the river mouth that emptied into the Gulf, whence Henry Nicholls was to set out in search of the Niger, was precisely the end of the Niger itself—only the Europeans did not know it yet. The starting point of the expedition was in fact its destination.[16]
On October 24, 1946 three Frenchmen, Jean Sauvy, Pierre Ponty and movie maker Jean Rouch, former civil servants in the African French colonies, set out to travel the entire length of the river, as no one else seemed to have done previously. They travelled from the very beginning of the river near Kissidougou in Guinea, walking at first till a raft could be used, then changing to various local crafts as the river broadened and changed. Two of them reached the ocean on March 25, 1947, with Pierre Ponty having had to leave the expedition at Niamey, somewhat past the halfway mark. They carried a 16mm movie camera, the resulting footage giving Jean Rouch his first two ethnographic documentaries: "Au pays des mages noirs", and "La chasse à l’hippopotame". A camera was used to illustrate Jean Rouch's subsequent book "Le Niger En Pirogue" (Fernand Nathan, 1954), as well as Jean Sauvy’s “Descente du Niger” (L'Harmattan 2001). A typewriter was brought as well, on which Pierre Ponty produced newspaper articles he mailed out whenever possible.[17]
More recently, Norwegian adventurer Helge Hjelland made another journey through the entire length of the Niger River starting in Guinea-Bissau in 2005. The trip was filmed by the adventurer himself and made into a documentary titled "The Cruellest Journey".[18]
Management and development[edit]
The water in the Niger River basin is partially regulated through dams. In Mali the Sélingué Dam on the Sankarani River is mainly used for hydropower, but also permits irrigation. Two diversion dams, one at Sotuba just downstream of Bamako, and one at Markala, just downstream of Ségou, are used to irrigate about 54,000 hectares.[7] In Nigeria the Kainji Dam and the Jebba dam are used to generate hydropower.
The water resources of the Niger River are under pressure due to increased water abstraction for irrigation and due to the impact of climate change. The construction of dams for hydropower generation is underway or envisaged in order to alleviate chronic power shortages in the countries of the Niger basin.[19]
The FAO estimates the irrigation potential of all countries in the Niger river basin at 2.8 million hectares. Only 0.93m hectares (ha) were under irrigation in the late 1980s. The irrigation potential was estimated at 1.68m ha in Nigeria 0.56m ha in Mali, and the actual irrigated area was 0.67m ha and 0.19m ha.[7]
Niger Basin Charta and Investment Plan[edit]
In order to further coordinate their efforts, in April 2008 the riparian countries which form the Niger Basin Authority adopted a Niger Basin Water Charta, a basin-wide 30-year investment plan and a 5-year priority investment plan. The Charta promotes Integrated Water Resources Management, defines procedures for the examination and approval of new projects, provides a framework for the allocation of water resources between sectors, commits to maintain the integrity of aquatic ecosystems and defines mechanisms for the settlement of disputes between countries and for user participation. Investments include the expansion of irrigated agriculture to improve food security, the construction of the Taoussa (or Tossaye) dam in Mali and the Kandadji Dam in Niger (the latter has been under construction since August 2008), as well as the rehabilitation of the Kainji dam and Jebba dam in Nigeria.[a]
Funding[edit]
Most of the investments are funded or are expected to be funded through aid. For example, the Kandadji Dam is financed by the Islamic Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the OPEC Development Fund. The World Bank approved a US$500 million soft loan in July 2007 to finance projects in the basin over a 12-year period. Funding will be awarded in two phases. The initial $185 million credit will go to Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Niger. The second, $315 million investment, is slated for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast.[22] Besides financing the rehabilitation of dams in Nigeria, the loan will also fund the "sustainable management of selected degraded ecosystems and rehabilitation of small water infrastructure" and capacity building.[23]
River transport and dredging[edit]
In September 2009, the Nigerian government commenced a 36 billion naira dredging of the Niger River from Baro to Warri, a move which will see silt removed from several hundred kilometres.[24] The dredging is intended to make it easier for goods to be transported to isolated settlements located deep within from the Atlantic Ocean.[24] Estimated to be completed within six to eight months, it had first been proposed and then postponed for 43 years previously by the then government.[24][25] Speaking in Lokoja, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua stated that the project would lead to "all-year-round navigability" on the River Niger and that he hoped that, by 2020, Nigeria would have become one of the twenty most industrialised nations in the world.[24][25] Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, the Nigerian Minister of Transport, said his ministry would work to make certain the project would be completed within its designated timeframe.[25] Some activists have, however, opposed the project in the past, claiming it may have negative effects on waterside villagers.[24]
In late March 2010 the dredging project was 50% complete.[26]
See also[edit]
Africa portal
Geography portal
Azawagh - dry basin that once carried a northern tributary of the Niger River.
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Niger Basin Authority (NBA), Executive Secretariat, "8th Summit of the Heads of State and Government", Final communique ,[20] quoted in the Newsletter No. 47 of ECLAC because the website of the Niger Basin Authority is not working.[21]
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Accessed 2010-10-22.
Jump up ^ Accessed 2010-10-22.
Jump up ^ Gleick, Peter H. (2000), The World's Water, 2000-2001: The Biennial Report on Freshwater, Island Press, p. 33, ISBN 1-55963-792-7 ; online at Google Books
Jump up ^ Hunwick, John O. (2003) [1999]. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents. Leiden: Brill. p. 275 Fn 22. ISBN 90-04-11207-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c Reader 2001, p. 191.
Jump up ^ Reader 2001, pp. 191–192.
^ Jump up to: a b c d FAO:Irrigation potential in Africa: A basin approach, The Niger Basin, 1997
Jump up ^ Tom L. McKnight; Darrel Hess (2005). "16, "The Fluvial Processes"". Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall. p. 462. ISBN 0-13-145139-1.
^ Jump up to: a b C. K. Meek, The Niger and the Classics: The History of a Name. The Journal of African History. Vol. 1, No. 1 (1960), pp. 1-17
Jump up ^ Law, R. C. C. (1967), "The Garamantes and Trans-Saharan Enterprise in Classical Times", The Journal of African History, 8 (2): 181–200, doi:10.1017/S0021853700007015 . Law carefully ties together the classical sources on this, and explains the mix of third hand reports and mythology that was current in both the European and Arab worlds.
Jump up ^ Edward Herbert Bunbury, William H. Stahl. A History of Ancient Geography Among the Greeks and Romans: From the Earliest Ages Till the Fall of the Roman Empire J. Murray, London (1879) pp.626–627
Jump up ^ Thomson 1948, pp. 258–259.
Jump up ^ Thomson 1948, p. 258.
Jump up ^ Law (1967) pp.182–4
Jump up ^ de Gramonte, Sanche (1991), The Strong Brown God: Story of the Niger River, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-56756-4
Jump up ^ Frank T. Kryza, The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold, New York: HarperCollins, 2006, p. 46. ISBN 0060560657.
Jump up ^ Baugh, Brenda, About Jean Rouch, Documentary Education Resources, retrieved 27 Jan 2010
Jump up ^ Bergen International Film Festival - The Cruelest Journey Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. https://amehn.wordpress.com/the-cruellest-journey/
Jump up ^ "In the Niger Basin, Countries Collaborate on Hydropower, Irrigation and Improved Water Resource Management". World Bank. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
Jump up ^ http://www.abn.ne/index.php/eng/News/Publi-INFO/Final-communique-8-th-Head-of-States-Summit
Jump up ^ http://www.eclac.org/drni/noticias/circulares/1/35841/irl_47.pdf
Jump up ^ Voice of America: RSS Feed World Bank Sending $500 Million Funding for Niger Basin Development, July 4, 2007
Jump up ^ World Bank:Niger Basin Water Resources Development and Sustainable Ecosystems Management Project, accessed on January 9, 2010 Archived June 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Nigeria begins vast river dredge". BBC. 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
^ Jump up to: a b c Wole Ayodele (2009-09-09). "Yar'Adua Flags off Dredging of River Niger". This Day Online. Archived from the original on 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-09-11. http://allafrica.com/stories/200909110317.html
Jump up ^ "N36bn River Niger dredging project 50% completed – FG". Punch on the web. 2010-03-25. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2010-05-11. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/03/n36bn-dredging-of-river-niger-not-cancelled-presidency/
Sources[edit]
Reader, John (2001), Africa, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, ISBN 0-620-25506-4
Thomson, J. Oliver (1948), History of Ancient Geography, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, ISBN 0-8196-0143-8
Welcomme, R.L. (1986), "The Niger River System", in Davies, Bryan Robert; Walker, Keith F., The Ecology of River Systems, Springer, pp. 9–60, ISBN 90-6193-540-7
External links[edit]
Find more aboutNiger Riverat Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Wikimedia Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Travel guide from Wikivoyage
Learning resources from Wikiversity
Data from Wikidata
Information and a map of the Niger's watershed http://www.wri.org/resources
Map of the Niger River basin at Water Resources eAtlas (link broken)
Niger Currents: Exploring life and technology along the Niger River
Pierre Maas and Geert Mommersteeg, Fishing in the Pondo, 1990, Saudi Aramco World
International law and the Niger River[edit]
Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law Peace Palace Library
Fabio Spadi, "The ICJ Judgment in the Benin-Niger Border Dispute: the interplay of titles and ‘effectivités’ under the uti possidetis juris principle", Leiden Journal of International Law https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/13541(2005) 4, pp. 777–794.
Coordinates: 11°04′36″N 9°18′46″W / 11.076638°N 9.312839°W / 11.076638; -9.312839
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Gestation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside female viviparous animals. It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time (multiple gestations).
The time interval of a gestation is called the gestation period. In human obstetrics, gestational age refers to the embryonic or fetal age plus two weeks. This is approximately the duration since the woman's last menstrual period (LMP) began.
Contents
[hide]
1 Mammals
1.1 Humans
2 Non-mammals
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
Mammals[edit]
Main article: Pregnancy (mammals)
In mammals, pregnancy begins when a zygote (fertilized ovum) implants in the female's uterus and ends once the fetus leaves the uterus.
On the main article link above, are average and approximate gestation values ordered by number of days (note: human gestational age is counted from the last menstrual period; for other animals the counting method varies, so these figures could be 14 days off)
Humans[edit]
Main article: Pregnancy
Human pregnancy can be divided roughly into three trimesters, each approximately three months long. The first trimester is from the last period to the 13th week, the second trimester is from the 14th to 27th week, and the third trimester is from the 28th week to the 42nd week.[1]
In humans, birth normally occurs at a gestational age of about 40 weeks, though it is common for births to occur from 37 to 42 weeks.[1] After 8 weeks, the embryo is called a fetus.
Non-mammals[edit]
A viviparous animal is an animal employing vivipary: the embryo develops inside the body of the mother, as opposed to outside in an egg (ovipary). The mother then gives live birth. The less developed form of vivipary is called ovoviviparity, which, for instance, occurs in most vipers. The more developed form of vivipary is called placental viviparity; mammals are the best example, but it has also evolved independently in other animals, such as in scorpions, some sharks, and in velvet worms. Viviparous offspring live independently and require an external food supply from birth. Certain lizards also employ this method such as the genera Tiliqua and Corucia. The placenta is attached directly to the mother in these lizards which is called viviparous matrotrophy.
Ovoviviparous animals develop within eggs that remain within the mother's body up until they hatch or are about to hatch. This strategy of birth is known as ovoviviparity. It is similar to vivipary in that the embryo develops within the mother's body. Unlike the embryos of viviparous species, ovoviviparous embryos are nourished by the egg yolk rather than by the mother's body. However, the mother's body does provide gas exchange. Ovoviviparity is the method of reproduction used by many aquatic life forms such as fish and some sharks, reptiles, and invertebrates. The young of ovoviviparous amphibians are sometimes born as larvae, and undergo metamorphosis outside the body of the mother.
The Syngnathidae family of fish has the unique characteristic whereby females lay their eggs in a brood pouch on the male's chest, and the male incubates the eggs. Fertilization may take place in the pouch or before implantation in the water. Included in Syngnathidae are seahorses, the pipefish, and the weedy and leafy sea dragons. Syngnathidae is the only family in the animal kingdom to which the term "male pregnancy" has been applied.[2]
See also[edit]
Evolution of mammals (for the evolution of gestation-related features in humans and other mammals)
Male pregnancy
Nesting instinct
Pregnancy
Pregnancy in fish
Prenatal development
Prenatal nutrition and birth weight
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - How Your Baby Grows During Pregnancy
Jump up ^ Jones, Adam G.; Avise, John C. (2003-10-14). "Male Pregnancy". Current Biology. 13 (20): R791. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2003.09.045. PMID 14561416.
NSRL.ttu.edu
External links[edit]
Table listing average animal gestation periods
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gestation&oldid=786585048"
Categories:
Reproduction in mammals
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