6. Losing Lake Chad.

-


The Lake Chad Basin seen from Apollo 7, October 1968. Source. 

Building on from last week’s discussions of transboundary water resources in NRB, this week I will be exploring the Lake Chad Basin (LCB), which is shared by eight riparian countries and consists of a staggering 47 million people, covering 8% of the African continent (Galeazzi et al). It is revealed that whilst the LCB faces a plethora of challenges in the form of environmental issues, the lingering effects of colonial legacies and contemporary terrorist activity, unlike the NBA, no effectual transboundary agreement exists.    

A common trend in much of my reading, the effects of colonialism remain, proving detrimental in the case of the LCB, heightening access inequalities (Marthur and Mulwafu), with a need to decolonise water rights being addressed as vital to much of Africa’s future development (Van Koppen, 2018). The Maga Dam on the Logone-chari River for example, built in Cameroon during the French colonial era, significantly reduces inflow to the lake, a similar story to numerous dams found along the Jama’are and Hadeja in Nigeria (Asah), demonstrating the lingering adversities of colonial rule. Likewise, increased irrigation since this time, has further exacerbated water scarcity levels in the region (IUCN), with all these problems demonstrating the pressing urgency for river basin management, with the ever-soaring likelihood of conflict in the region (Asah), intensified by the environmental monitoring network in the region, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), noted as, 'inadequate, sparse, poorly funded and badly operated' (UN).

“Lake Chad is shrinking while the population is exploding. It’s a challenging situation. With less land, less rainfall, these are very unique problems for the country” Nigerian President Buhari. 

Following severe reductions in levels of precipitation in the 1970s and 1980s, surface waters in Lake Chad have reduced from 18,000km2 to below 2,000km2 (IAEA). This follows the trend for many African water resources, with climate change intensifying pressures, increasing variability in rainfall and river discharge (Goulden et al, 2009).

Lake Chad has shrunk by an estimated 90% since the 1960s. Source. 

The effects of such strains on water resources are clear, with about 6.9 million people facing food insecurity in the Basin during the 2017 lean season (FAO). Furthermore, entire communities have since switched from a fishing-lifestyle to that of farming and agriculture, deserting the shores of the lake and instead isolating themselves inland (Pope, 2008).

Moreover, the actions of the jihadist terrorist group, Boko Haram, must be acknowledged when discussing the politics of the Lake Chad region. This conflict has escalated, with April of this year being viewed as one of the deadliest periods since 2015, with an estimated 1,491 deaths being linked to Boko Haram (CFR). Such brutality has significantly worsened strains on water supplies, with  2.4 million people having been displaced (UNHCR) and limited access to humanitarian aid.  

A visual demonstrating the number of citizens to have fled crisis affected areas due to Boko Haram. Source. 

Furthermore, it is clear that gender plays a mighty role in Boko Haram’s plague of destruction, with the kidnapping of the 276 Chibok Schoolgirls in 2014 gaining international media attention, thousands of mothers facing untimely widowhood, and the ‘weaponisation’ of women’s bodies being a shockingly common tactic by terrorists in the region, used as human shields and bomb vessels (Okoli).

An important voice. 

It is clear that the LCB is facing a plethora of challenges ranging from climate change to entrenched legacies of colonialism that has also helped fuel the emergence of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. Strategies targeted at alleviating scarcity such as transboundary cohesion and equitable distribution of water resources are clearly imminently required, with a need for bottom-up community approaches as opposed to large-scale top-down plans such as the proposed $10billion Transaqua Dam (Adeniran). Moreover, there is clearly a pressing need to recognise the plight faced by women in particular, with persistent stigma surrounding water and sanitation undercutting current development strategies across the region (McFarlane), evidently requiring further investigations, as my next blog will explore. 





Comments

  1. maha husseinDecember 31, 2020 at 7:41 AM

    i really enjoyed reading this. you were detailed and used multimedia to back up your point through graphs and videos. the information was easy to read and you had good literature interaction. overall very well done!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1. Introductions; West African Water Politics and Hollywood.

-
Image
My name is Sebastian Alsina-Olaizola and over the course of several weeks, I will explore the nature of politics and water in Africa, focussing in particular on West Africa, which consists of 16 unique nations and 400 million people.  I have opted to look at the political aspects of water, specifically, "water conflict", defined as, “Any disagreement or dispute over or about water, where external social, economic, legal, political or military intervention is needed to resolve the problem” ( Ashton, 2007 ), having recently returned from a year abroad in California. Here, I gained a brief insight into the politicised nature of water, even on a continent that holds the largest share of the world’s total freshwater ( Gaye and Tindimugaya, 2019 ). I was able to kayak down the Colorado River, and learnt of the historic disagreements over the Compact Agreement which distributes use between the seven states the river runs through, as well as damming by the US, that has led to the riv...
Read more

5. 'The River of Rivers'.

-
Image
As addressed in previous blogs, water in West African nations such as Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire is facing severe challenges in the form of misallocation and pollution, with climate change heightening pressures further ( Kundzewicz et  al.,  2007 ).   These issues are compounded by the transboundary nature of water in the region, with my next two blogs investigating such  shared water resources in  West Africa and the  cooperative strategies employed to alleviate tensions and negotiate more equitable utilisation of water ( Tawfik, 2016 ). It can be noted that 90% of all of Africa’s surface freshwater is in the form of river basins and lakes that are shared by two or more nations ( Goulden et al, 2010 ), with transboundary aquifers (TBAs) representing an estimated 42% of the continental area ( Altchenko and Villholth, 2013 ). I was astonished at the true extent of such transboundary water resources in West Africa specifically, with all countries in this regio...
Read more

3. Post-Conflict Recovery.

-
Image
Having looked at surface water contamination in Ghana last week, this week I will be investigating management of water supplies following conflict, addressing Côte d'Ivoire’s successful water privatisation, and comparing this to the pitfalls of water management in Sierra Leone.     Both Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone share similar stories, having gained independence in the early 1960s and having since been marred by conflict, with  Côte d'Ivoire's  armed rebellion in 2002 splitting the nation in two ( HRW, 2011 ), and Sierra Leone’s  1991 to 2002  Civil War claiming some 70,000 casualties and displaced 2.6 million people ( UNDP ).  UN Troops in  Côte d'Ivoire . Source .  This persistent unrest has had numerous adverse implications on sanitation and water quality, with mass-urbanisation following the conflict placing a strain on sewage and sanitation facilities in urban areas, heightening the risk of water-borne diseases such as Guin...
Read more