In the past week, the concept of recharging Lake Chad gained a lot more attention, at least in the Nigerian space, and given its importance and relevance to biodiversity and reversing desertification in Northern Nigeria, it is only right we review the issue going on with Lake Chad Basin.
What’s happening to the Lake Chad Basin?
Located in western Chad, Lake Chad is a freshwater lake in Northern Central Africa that is shared and extends into Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger. For millions across the region, this lake represents a source of livelihood and biodiversity, but unfortunately, due to the high climate change-induced precipitation decline in the region, Lake Chad has decreased by almost 90%.
The resultant effect
As livelihoods are lost because of the shrinkage, the conflict between Boko Haram, herders, and farmers for resources has surged and families that are reliant on the lake have no other choice but to move elsewhere in search of safety, freshwater and food security, many times venturing to insecure locations.
Since the majority of able-bodied men and teenagers are forcibly recruited or killed by insurgents, the army, and civilian vigilante groups, women and girls are frequently the victims of forced abductions, forced marriages, and rapes, making the humanitarian crisis unique to women, children, and people over 60. All of these have led to an increase in migration and internally displaced persons.
How is recharging the Lake Chad Basin possible?
Even though many Nigerians are only hearing that phrase for the first time, there have been ongoing meetings and plans to remedy the predicament of the Lake Chad Basin. Governments of the affected regions are planning responses on several levels including military responses to make the region a workable one at least.
In September 2019, at the UN General Assembly in New York, President Buhari addressed concerns about the shrinking lake. Since then, the UN has co-hosted two international donor conferences, the first in Oslo where donors committed $672 million in emergency aid and the second in Berlin where donors announced $2.17 billion, including $467 million in concessional loans, to support initiatives in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
Later in that same year, President Muhammadu Buhari also requested support from the Qatari government, emphasizing that recharging Lake Chad will be key to reviving the farming sector and reducing illegal migration and insurgency in the region.
In a statement made in the final quarter of the year by the Minister of Water Resources and the Chair of the Council of Ministers in the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Engr. Suleman Adamu, said meetings would be held by the Nigerian government with the governments of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon to work out a plan to revive in recharging Lake Chad. The minister also said he was confident that Nigeria and the concerned countries would find sustainable solutions to revitalise Lake Chad.
Recharging the Lake Chad might mean diverting water from the Congo river which will cost around $50 billion, something the Congolese government isn’t fully onboard with, for the safety of its own basin. Another very important thing that must be done is to create a research facility that will look into the current and past trends of the basin to develop a blueprint. Also, it is very necessary that for a start securing the region is very important for the practicality of any work that is to be done.
Summarily, whether or not this has been approved the fact remains that it will be a project of pharaonic magnitude as the funds and the engineering to complete it might be extremely difficult to put together. While the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and African Development Bank (AfDB) continue the development project in the region, the Lake Chad urgency remains and continues to heighten and it certainly will demand more than political rhetoric.