Africa’s Vanishing Lake Chad
Written By Ahmad Salkida (April 2012)
As you approach the Lake Chad basin from
Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria, the
atmosphere of despair is telling. The air is
dusty, the wind is fierce and unrelenting, the
plants are wilting and the earth is turning into
sand dunes. The sparse vegetation is
occasionally broken by withered trees and
shrubs. The lives of herders, fisherfolk and
farmers are teetering on the edge as the lake
dries up before their eyes.
Vegetation and water, the traditional staples of
livelihood for the Lake Chad community
dwellers, are vanishing. Vultures feast on dead
cows as drought and desertification take their
toll. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) has called the situation an “ecological
catastrophe,” predicting that the lake could
disappear this century.
According to FAO Director of Land and Water
Parviz Koohafkan, the Lake Chad basin is one of
the most important agricultural heritage sites
in the world, providing a lifeline to nearly 30
million people in four countries — Nigeria,
Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Lake Chad is located in the far west of Chad and
the northeast of Nigeria. Parts of the lake also
extend to Niger and Cameroon. It is fed mainly
by the Chari River through the Lagone
tributary, which used to provide 90 per cent of
its water. It was once Africa’s largest water
reservoir in the Sahel region, covering an area
of about 26,000 square kilometres, about the
size of the US state of Maryland and bigger
than Israel or Kuwait.
By 2001 the lake covered less than one-fifth of
that area. “It may even be worse now,” says
Abbas Mohammed, a climatologist at the
University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Dams and irrigation
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), a
regional body that regulates the use of the
basin’s water and other natural resources,
maintain that inefficient damming and
irrigation methods on the part of the countries
bordering the lake are partly responsible for its
shrinkage. Emmanuel Asuquo-Obot of the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an organization
devoted to wildlife conservation, points to the
diversion of water from the Chari River to
irrigation projects and dams along the Jama’are
and Hadejia Rivers in northeastern Nigeria.
As parts of the lake dry up, most farmers and
cattle herders have moved towards greener
areas, where they compete for land resources
with host communities. Others have gone to
Kano, Abuja, Lagos and other big cities for
menial jobs or to roam the streets as beggars.
Those who remain in Lake Chad shoreline
communities such as Doron Baga are haunted
by the speed with which the lake is vanishing.
The Doron Baga settlement, which used to be
by the lakeside, is now 20 kilometers from its
edge.
Alhaji Baba Garba, a 78-year-old fisherman
who has spent his life on the banks of the lake,
says that much of the village used to be
alongside it. Pointing at one of his children in
his mid-30s, Garba adds, “even before that boy,
Suleiman, was born.” Another villager, Salisu
Zuru, laments the death of livestock.
The once busy Baga market in Maiduguri,
where truckloads of fish from the lake used to
be processed and then transported daily to
other parts of the country, is now quiet. The
villagers must now travel by canoe and on foot
for days from Doron Baga to Daban Masara,
then to Darak in search of food. Darak is an
affluent fishing community to the east of
Cameroon’s border with Nigeria.
Tensions rise
The impact of the drying lake is causing
tensions among communities around Lake
Chad. There are repeated conflicts among
nationals of different countries over control of
the remaining water. Cameroonians and
Nigerians in Darak village, for example,
constantly fight over the water. Nigerians claim
to be the first settlers in the village, while
Cameroonians invoke nationalistic sentiments,
since the village is within Cameroonian
territory. Fishermen also want farmers and
herdsmen to cease diverting lake water to their
farmlands and livestock.
The LCBC — established by the leaders of Chad,
Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger in 1964 and later
joined by the Central Africa Republic in 1994 —
and its partners continue to make efforts to
save the lake or at least mitigate the impact of
its shrinkage on people’s lives. In his book An
Inconvenient Truth, former US Vice-President
Al Gore shows several images of the lake
shrinking from 25,000 square kilometres in
1963 to just 1,500 square km in 2001.
However, a 2007 satellite image shows
improvements from previous years.
Recent drought may again have worsened the
situation, says Professor Mohammed of the
University of Maiduguri. He urges the LCBC and
its partners to tackle the impact of climate
change, as well as to control damming and
irrigation by the LCBC countries.
Replenishment plans
The commission’s member countries have
plans to replenish the lake by building a dam
and 60 miles of canals to pump water uphill
from the Congo River to the Chari River and
then on to Lake Chad. The replenishment
project “will be the first of its kind in Africa,”
says Martin Gbafolo, the LCBC’s director of
water resources and environment. The
commission has raised more than $5 million
for a feasibility study. Although the total cost of
the project will not be known until the study is
completed, experts like Professor Mohammed
expect it will take a huge injection of funds to
save the lake.
Already the World Bank is providing $10.6
million for a project to reverse land and water
degradation in parts of the lake. In addition,
the LCBC is educating livestock herders on
gaining access to grazing and watering areas.
Water users are taught efficient water-utilizati
on methods and fishermen more appropriate
techniques for catching fish.
At the opening of the African World Forum on
Sustainable Development in N’Djamena, Chad,
in October 2010, Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan stressed the collective determination
of leaders of the LCBC member countries to
salvage the lake. But among the 30 million
people who depend on it, there is uncertainty
as to how much longer the lake will remain and
when they will be able to get a relief.
- See more at: http://www.un.org/
africarenewal/magazine/april-2012/africa%E2%
80%99s-vanishing-lake-chad#sthash.cL
FxHzIb.dpuf

This is so sad, I had to look it up online. I hope and pray the reversal project doesn't disappear into obscurity.