Climate change is hitting the African continent extraordinarily hard, and the worst part is that no one seems to be aware of it. Lake Chad, on which the survival of at least 40 million people depends, is drying up fast and currently only occupies 10% of the surface. more than I had sixty years ago. The situation is dramatic, a genuine humanitarian emergency, and it appears to be turning its back. Oxfam-Intermón reminds the gravity of this situation and urges governments to take action to prevent major deaths in this region.
90% of the lake’s surface has already been lost, increasing from 25,000 km2 (the area of all Galicia) to just 2,000 km2., equivalent to the island of Tenerife. And it’s drying up fast. If everything continues like this, in a few years it will be gone forever.
Niger, the world’s sixth largest and Africa’s most important freshwater 60 years ago, is an inland sea bounded by Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. Now, it has become “an enormous collage of ponds and vast dry lands,” as Mireia Aliart explains in the Oxfam Intermón news release.
According to the United Nations, Half of the decline in Lake Chad is a result of climate change, while the rest is due to inefficient and intensive use of water for irrigation and consumption.. The lack of integrated management of water resources in the region and the construction of dams for hydraulic projects on the rivers that feed it have also had a devastating effect. The successive establishment of levees by energy companies means that water does not reach the lake.
But in addition to this, the evaporation of this great lake is happening faster and faster, making it difficult for its waters and the surrounding soil to feed its inhabitants. There are fewer and fewer fish, every day the small reservoirs are less available for irrigation, and there is more and more space where the sand that covers the arable land advances.. Poverty and famines are advancing at the same pace.
Oxfam-Intermón emphasizes that without resources or assistance, these populations (which are least responsible for global warming caused by developed countries) are doomed to displacement or death.
“The relapse of climate crises is the death knell for people who have already been hit hard by ongoing conflict and growing inequality. “The wave of climate catastrophes far exceeds the ability of poor people to cope, which is pushing them into an even more extreme state of hunger,” says Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.
Less water, pasture and livestock
And their livelihoods are particularly vulnerable to global warming when they depend on the weather. The Sahel region, where Chad is located, has reduced grain production by 25% due to major floods and droughts.
Cattle are dying because of lack of water and pastureIt creates a spiral of famine that accelerates from year to year.
In the four border countries of the lake, Food insecurity already affects 5.5 million people during the dry season, and at least 300,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition.. Humanitarian organizations estimate that around 2.6 billion euros are needed to cover humanitarian action, but only 20% of this amount has been allocated so far.
“Climate change is no longer a time bomb, it’s exploding before our eyes.”says Bucher.
To all this must be added the conflicts affecting the entire Lake Chad basin and causing massive population displacements. 60% of the basin’s population had to leave their homes due to violence. Since 2018, more than 2.3 million people have already fled.
“It is raining less and less. Lake Chad has shrunk and streams and crop fields are being swallowed up by sand dunes. “We have great difficulty watering the plants, our harvest is very poor due to the lack of water, and we only get what we grow,” says Djaboura, mother of a large family interviewed by Oxfam.
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