Nigeria, others in danger as Lake Chad dries up, report warns
Written by Taiwo Adediran on October 13, 2015
A new report, the Environmental Audit of the Drying Up of the Lake Chad, has said that the Lake Chad is drying up very fast from twenty-five thousand square kilometer in 1963 to just one thousand, five hundred square kilometer as at present. Presenting the report to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Samuel Ukura, warned of dire consequence for Nigeria and other neighboring countries if the Lake Chad basin is allowed to dry up.
The President, while receiving the reports, noted that the recession of the Chad basin and the desertification of the area contributed to the evolution of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency as the means of livelihood of the people living in the area have been lost. In order to save the Lake Chad Basin from extinction with its unsavory economic consequences on the countries in the area, President Buhari said some rivers from the Central Africa Republic (CAR) should be diverted to empty into the Chad Basin in order to stop it from drying up. He also called on the National Assembly to expressly ratify the Lake Chad Basin Water Charter
