Ilorin — A International Centre Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED), has said that 90 per cent of the water in Lake Chad had been lost to the adverse effects of climate change.
Executive Director of ICEED, Mr Ewah Eleri, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja, expressed concern at the rate at which the water in the lake was receding.
He said the development was worrisome in view of the fact that the lake served as source of fresh water to more than 30 million people living around its bank.
Eleri said the lake, considered to be the sixth largest in the world, is bordered by four countries, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and the Cameroon.He also expressed concern at the high rate of desert encroachment in Nigeria, saying most of the villages in the northern states had been overtaken by sand dunes.
The Executive Director said that Nigeria was losing its territory at a rate of 3 kilometres per annum to the Sahara desert.
"Nigeria is facing accelerated environmental degradation, ranging from desertification, ocean surge, flood and erosion to high rate of deforestation, due to the adverse effects of climate change," he added.
He said the high rate of desert encroachment posed a national challenge, noting with regret that the government and society had failed to rise to the challenge.
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Lake chad isn't just drying up! It is being sucked dry and filled in by a dessication machine called Typha. Its tributaries are largely blocked and dried up, the old lake bed overrun and raised above the water table. It is this infestation that drives desertification. You MUST conquer it, it is conquering you. The resilience of this plant means controlling it is a never ending effort. Never ending efforts require a profit to sustain - available in food and fuel. Grown in clean water and soil, Typha is one of the most productive crops in the world. It collects and hoards pollutants, so not just any can be eaten. Most of what isn't fit for human consumption, and all of what is, can be made into fuel in quite a few ways. There has also been significant success in using it as a source of fiber.
This plant creates soil copiously. The soil that this plant has created must also be removed fom the streams and lake beds to restore proper function. It can be used to rehabilitate desert soil, and to fight coastal erosion. The coastal versions of the plant are also very good for fighting coastal erosion.
The environmental impact of clearing this plant (realistically, a multi million man-year effort) includes reduced flooding, reduced malaria, and reduced Quelea infestation. There are too many profits here for your people to keep track of. Turn this troublesome weed into an everlasting resource. It is terrifyingly renewable.