Sine-Saloum is a region in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

located north of

the Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

and south of the

Petite Côte The Petite Côte is a stretch of coast in Senegal, running south from the Cap-Vert peninsula to the Saloum Delta, near the border with the Gambia. The northern section near Dakar contains seaside resorts such as Saly Portudal, Rufisque, Nian ...

. It encompasses an area of 24,000 square

kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the preferred mea ...

s, about 12% of Senegal, with a population in the 1990s of 1,060,000. The western portion contains the Saloum Delta, a

river delta A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...

at the junction of the

Saloum The Kingdom of Saloum ( Serer: ''Saluum'' or ''Saalum'') was a Serer kingdom in present-day Senegal and parts of Gambia. The precolonial capital was the city of Kahone. Re-established in 2017, Saloum is now a non-sovereign traditional monarch ...

and the North Atlantic. It is in this region that the

Saloum Delta National Park Saloum Delta National Park or Parc National du Delta du Saloum in Senegal, is a national park. Established in 1976, it is situated within the Saloum Delta at the juncture of the Saloum River and the North Atlantic. The park, which forms part o ...

is located. 145,811

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

of the Delta were designated a

UNESCO Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

in 2011. Because it flows so slowly, this delta allows saltwater to travel deep inland. Long ago, the Serer kingdoms of

Sine In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side opposite th ...

and

were rivals. In 1984, the area was divided into two administrative regions: Kaolack and

Fatick Fatick (; ; ) is a town and urban commune in Senegal, located between M'bour and Kaolack and inhabited by the Serer people. Its 2023 population was at 39,361. It is the capital of the Fatick Region and the Fatick Department. Toponymy Its n ...

Economy

Primary economic activities in the 2000s consisted of fishing, salt production,

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

farming, and

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

farming. A secondary economy is the construction of fishing boats. Transportation is difficult because of the many islands.

Ecosystem

Much of the region consists of

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withs ...

s. The upper reaches of the rivers adjoin the

Sahel The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...

region and are affected by its

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

. The salinity of the water increased during the 1970s instance of the

Sahel drought The Sahel region of Africa has long experienced a series of historic droughts, dating back to at least the 17th century. The Sahel region is a climate zone sandwiched between the Sudanian Savanna to the south and the Sahara desert to the north, ...

and mismanagement of the rivers upstream has been described as a factor. Mangroves are disappearing, and

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

are disappearing with them. The villagers have difficulty obtaining

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

. Sometimes water pumps are donated by international organizations, but spare parts are difficult to find when the pumps fail. The change in water salinity is affecting the ecosystem as much as it is changing the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the region.

Navigation

Sine-Saloum has long been feared by even Europe's most distinguished mariners because the sandbanks move, particularly in Sangomar. This danger to outsiders has long protected the region and preserved its individual villages.

References

External links

*
Sine-Saloum at Au-Senegal.com
*

{{Authority control Regions of Senegal Geography of Senegal Serer country

Economy

Ecosystem

Navigation

See also

References

Further reading

External links