[ 2012-05-12 ]

Africa's vanishing Lake Chad puts 30 million lives at risk
Maiduguri, Nigeria - As you approach the Lake Chad
basin from Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria, the
evidence 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 lives of herders, fisherfolks 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 agriculture 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.

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 by the countries
bordering the lake are partly responsible for its
shrinkage.

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 Doran Baga are haunted by the
speed with which the lake is vanishing. The Doran
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
Doran Baga to Dabban Masara, then to Darak in
search of food. Darak is an affluent fishing
community to the east of Cameroon's border with
Nigeria.

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.

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-utilization 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 2011, 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
breathe a sigh of relief.

Source - Africa Renewal

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