100 Places To Remember: Lake Chad, Chad
Geschreven op 21-2-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Natuur
Water for 20 Million People. Lake Chad is located in the savannah of the Sahel region, just south of the Sahara desert. Surrounded by four countries - Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger - it is the most important source of water for drinking, crops and livestock, as well as extensive subsistence fishing, for nearly 20 million people.
Lake Chad is believed to have been an inland sea some 13,000 years ago, at one point covering an imposing area of 400,000 square kilometres. As it is shallow, the size of the lake has always fluctuated greatly, but it has shrunk at an unprecedented rate over the last four decades. In the 1960s, the lake covered more than 26,000 square kilometres; by 2000, this had fallen to less than 1,500.
For the first time, human activity is now causing the water level to change dramatically. Irrigation and damming of the rivers that feed Lake Chad are draining the lake and overgrazing on the savannah is damaging vegetation. It is likely that these factors will make the climate even drier.
Water shortages have led to disagreements about jurisdiction between the neighbouring states, as well as to violent clashes between farmers, who are constantly diverting the water, and fishermen, who are worried about the lake shrinking.
Once one of the largest lakes in the world, Lake Chad now looks set to disappear. It is predicted that climate change, in the form of higher temperatures and increasing evaporation, will accelerate the shrinkage and the transformation of grasslands and wetlands into dusty deserts. The poverty and conflict that is expected to ensue would further exacerbate the situation in an already severely distressed region.
