Goundam

Goundam lies west of Timbuktu beside the watercourses that carry the Niger flood towards Lake Télé and the Faguibine basin. The lakes and channels form an extension of the inland delta at the southern edge of the Sahara. When the river rises, water spreads through the low ground and supports fishing, cultivation and grazing. Songhay farmers, Bozo fishers and pastoral communities have shared this country, whose prosperity has long depended on the changing flood.