Salvaging Lake Chad

Predictions by experts that Africa is the continent that is most vulnerable to changes in the global weather patterns occasioned by the climate change, which will affect water resources because of low adaptive capacity, is already manifesting in the shrinking of Lake Chad. This has resulted in loss of vegetation and water, the mainstay for the local economies of the Lake Chad’s community dwellers.
Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Libya are STATE PARTIES of the Lake Chad Basin, which is the lifewire of Lake Chad community dwellers of about 35 million people. Sadly, this great resource once reputed as Africa’s largest water reservoir in the Sahel region, covering an area of nearly 26,000 square kilometres has been receding at an alarming pace.



To underscore this, it is said that shoreline communities such as Doron Baga once sitting on the edge of the lakeside, is at the moment over 20 kilometres far from the tip of the Lake. Located in northeast of Nigeria and far west of Chad, and extends to Niger and Cameroon Lake Chad is source of livelihood for millions of people scattered in communities in the four countries, as the scourge takes its toll on arable land, livestock and water resources are disappearing. Inhabitants of the communities cannot help but watch in despair as their livelihood disappears unabated.
According to Lake Chad Basin Observatory, LaCBO, the number of people who live on the resources of the Lake will reach 35 million by the year 2020, adding that climate change poses enormous challenges to all the natural resources which are threatened by over exploitation and poor management of the environment.
The Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, a regional agency saddled with the responsibility of regulating the use of the water and other natural resources in the Basin partly blamed inefficient damming and irrigation methods on the part of the countries bordering the lake as responsible for its shrinking. African Development Bank, AfDB, experts noted that “Africa’s agricultural water management is insufficient. This is detrimental to a sector that is otherwise in a unique position to deliver pro-poor growth among rural households and to reduce exposure to crises of food prices and availability. With an infrastructure base that is lacking, many economies are extremely vulnerable to hydrological variability.”
The executive secretary, the LCBC Engr. Sanusi Abdullahi, stated during the 58th ordinary session of the LCBC of ministers meeting in Abuja penultimate week, noted that the drastic shrinking of the Lake Chad is a clear evidence of the negative effect of global warming.  Persisting high ambient temperature with average of 41 degrees centigrade (March to June) in the Lake Chad region result in average annual evaporation of 3m per year while average annual precipitation has reduced by about 40 per cent over the last 20 years for few exceptionally wet years.
‘‘Our salvation, Abdullahi enunciated “Lies in the looking inwards to find ways and means of mitigation the effect of climate change and imbibe the recommended adaptation/mitigation measure suitable to our environment to stop the scourge of climate change that is causing land degradation and water resources stress in our region, through proper planning and implementation of long-term soil and water conservation interventions.”
To this end, he said “In our effort to save the lake and the over 30 million people whose livelihood depends on the natural resource in the Lake, fauna and flora in the conventional basin we have developed a five year investment plan which is tailored towards maintaining and improving the ecosystem in the Lake Chad Basin through improvement of the quality and quantity of the water in the lake, sustainable use of natural resources and preservation of the ecosystem.”
However, there fears that funding might be a major stumbling block to mitigate the shrinking of the Lake. For instance, it was revealed during the 58th session revealed that only the Republic of Chad has settled its obligations to the LCBC. Prompting the executive secretary to appealed that “Member countries need to meet their financial obligation to the commission to earn the respect of our technical and financial partners.”
The federal government of Nigeria in message to the session expressed concern over the receding waters of the Lake Chad, due to the fact that it has impacted adversely on the livelihood of the populace within the Basin, hence, the need to address the issue of rejuvenation of the Lake urgently.
The AfDB a major institution that offers financial and technical support in the rejuvenation of the Basin noted that water supply and sanitation, water-related disaster risk and water for agriculture, industry, energy and transport, all must be managed through well designed national and trans-boundary water resources management plans.
To realise this, good governance and integrated approaches are essential, which will translate into opportunities to strengthen regional and cross-sector cooperation to improve the efficiency of water resources management. The solution also lies in improving the information and knowledge base in most countries to improve the reliability and quality of data.