The
Lake Chad, is a source of water to millions of people in West Africa, has
shrunk by nine-tenths due to climate change, and poor irrigation projects,
which has been largely reported. The humanitarian disaster in the region is one
of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian tragedies.
The
future of rapidly shrinking Lake Chad has weighty and far reaching impacts on
human health, food security, socio-economic stability, physical infrastructure,
natural resources, national and global peace and security in the Sahel region
and corresponding action is needed to save it.
The
shrinking of Lake Chad, which is bordered by Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and
Niger,is already an ecological catastrophe but it is fast becoming a very human
disaster as well, forcingpeople around this region into ever-keener competition
for this vital and disappearing resource. The drying-up of the lake water and
deterioration of the production capacity of its basin have affected all the
socio-economic activities.
In
the villages, people complained there was nothing for young people to do, and it
had become a perfect recruiting ground for insurgent group such as (Boko Haram).
Of course, Lake Chad's decline is not the sole reason for the rise of violent
extremism, a number of factors including poor irrigation systems have also
played a role.
A
scheme to replenish the water in Lake Chad is necessary, through channeling
water from the Palambo, in the Central African Republic and Ubangi River in
Central Africa Republic. The idea is to fill up Lake Chad and restore it to its
former ocean-like glory by diverting water from Central Africa Republic.
However,
a major setback emerging is that Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opposes the
project to transfer water to replenish the drying Lake Chad. The country fears dire
consequences on the country's ecosystems. The Democratic Republic of Congo has
long announced its opposition to the water transfer project to Lake Chad.
Their
fears are hinged on foreseen abuse in management that may arise from the Transaqua project, which will make the
Ubangi River suffer the same fate in a few years as Lake Chad. This will no
doubt affect the livelihood of the people living around the River that depend
on it for sustenance, because life is likely to get tough for the people who
live around the River. But this fear has been allayed that the Transaqua
project will use less than 8% of the water the Congo River discharges into the
Atlantic and would not be a threat to the Ubangi or Palambo Rivers.
Ironically,
the plan to replenish the drying Lake Chad has been approved in Abuja in
February 2018, at a conference co-organized in Abuja by UNESCO and the Lake Chad
Basin Commission (LCBC) where Cameroon, Chad Niger and Nigeria endorsed the Transaqua project which aims at
transferring 100 billion cubic meters per year, from the Ubangi River, in the
Central African Republic (CAR) to replenish Lake Chad, but the Democratic
Republic Congo have not been duly consulted and consent has not been gotten.
This
is a call on the affected countries to engage the DR Congo extensively and get
consent to avoid international conflicts. Also, beyond the recharging of the
lake, one of the solutions to this problem is climate actions through climate
governance involving all concerned countries, this should reflect in policy
documents to deliberately protect the protect the lake and drive for shared
prosperity.
Also
carrying out proper environmental assessment before irrigation projects are
executed. It has been largely reported that poor planning
and execution of large scale irrigation schemes contributed largely to the
shrinking state of the Lake Chad, hence, proper evaluation of these irrigation
practices must be checked to avoid further damage.
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