Lake Chad, once one of the world's largest water bodies, could disappear in 20 years due to climate change and population pressures, resulting in a humanitarian disaster in central Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today.
The lake - surrounded by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria - has shrunk by 90 per cent, going from 25,000 square kilometers in 1963 to less than 1,500 square kilometers in 2001.
The 30 million people living in the Lake Chad region are being forced into competing over water, and the drying up of the lake could lead to migration and conflicts, FAO cautioned.
Fish production has recorded a 60 per cent decline, while pasturelands have been degraded, resulting in a shortage of animal feed, livestock and biodiversity.
"The humanitarian disaster that could follow the ecological catastrophe needs urgent interventions," said Parvis Koohafkan, Director of FAO's Land and Water Division. "The tragic disappearance of Lake Chad has to be stopped and the livelihoods of millions of people living in this vast area should be safeguarded."
The agency collaborates with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), founded in 1964 which brings together countries in the region regularly to discuss regulation and control of water use.
A radical change in water management techniques is needed to stem the diminishing flow of water into Lake Chad, according to the body.
Together with the LCBC, FAO will hold a special event - "Saving Lake Chad: A System Under Threat" - in Rome tomorrow during World Food Day in a bid to raise awareness about the disastrous situation in the lake.
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Look at the lake. Look at its tributaries. They are clogged with weeds and silt. When water arrives, it is not channeled to the lake, but instead spreads out as flooding. With the climate change bringing repeated record-breaking storms this is compounded disaster. Harvest those weeds (typha and others) as biomass for biofuel production. Dredge that silt, and use it to repair desertified soil and to fight erosion. There are tributaries that have entirely dried out. Dig them out so that when the rains come, they again can replenish the earth and its waters. Clearing the weeds will have pleasant environmental side effects in the areas of malaria, bilharzia, and your quelea infestations. The fuel that can be made from the Typha infestation in the Lake Chad basin could satisfy all the fuel needs of the people.
Dear Lake Chad, See how people predict your death See how you days are numbered before your past glory See how men and women cry aloud Your vulnerability is our vulnerability When we enjoy you we forget sustainable development. Oh lord save Lake Chad from everyday shrivel The more we extend our pipe to meet you the more you move away from us Oh Lake Chad your survival is our revival Revival from hunger, revival from dehydration Is it our control numerical increase that endangered you? Is it our technological approach to productivity that bring you down no sustainability and productivity we can have together that I know.