Somalia NATURAL RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Figure 6. Transportation System, 1992
Somalia is not well-endowed with natural resources that can
be profitably marketed internationally, and at independence the
economic infrastructure was poorly developed. Throughout all
three eras in postindependence Somalia, officials had sought,
with mixed results, to develop the economic infrastructure.
Land
Estimates vary, but from 46 to 56 percent of Somalia's land
area can be considered permanent pasture. About 14 percent is
classified as forest. Approximately 13 percent is suitable for
cultivation, but most of that area would require additional
investments in wells and roads for it to be usable. The remaining
land is not economically exploitable. In the highlands around
Hargeysa, relatively high rainfall has raised the organic content
in the sandy calcareous soils characteristic of the northern
plains, and this soil has supported some dry farming. South of
Hargeysa begins the Haud, whose red calcareous soils continue
into the Ethiopian Ogaden. This soil supports vegetation ideal
for camel grazing. To the east of the Haud is the Mudug Plain,
leading to the Indian Ocean coast; this region, too, supports a
pastoral economy. The area between the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers
has soils varying from reddish to dark clays, with some alluvial
deposits and fine black soil. This is the area of plantation
agriculture and subsistence agropastoralism.
Practices concerning land rights varied from rural to urban
areas. In precolonial times, traditional claims and interclan
bargaining were used to establish land rights. A small market for
land, especially in the plantation areas of the south, developed
in the colonial period and into the first decade of independence.
The socialist regime sought to block land sales and tried to
lease all privately owned land to cooperatives as concessions.
Despite the government's efforts, a de facto land market
developed in urban areas; in the bush, the traditional rights of
clans were maintained.
The Siad Barre regime also took action regarding the water
system. In northern Somalia from 1988 to 1991, the government
destroyed almost all pumping systems in municipal areas
controlled by the Somali National Movement (SNM) or failing that,
stole the equipment. In rural areas, the government poisoned the
wells by either inserting animal carcasses or engine blocks that
leaked battery acid. As a result, northern Somalis had to rely on
older gravity water systems, use poor quality water, or buy
expensive water. Following the declaration of the independent
Republic of Somaliland in the north in May 1991, the government
of the republic began ongoing efforts to reconstruct the water
system.
In the south, in the late 1980s onward, as a result of war
damage and anarchy, the water situation in the towns tended to
resemble that in the north. Few pumping systems were operational
in early 1992. Conditions in rural areas varied. Many villages
had at least one borehole from which poor quality water could be
obtained in buckets; pumps generally were nonfunctioning. Somalis
who lived near the Jubba or Shabeelle rivers could obtain their
water directly from the river.
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