Report Links Insurgency With Drying Lake Chad

THE dwindling volume of water in Lake Chad has been identified as one of the factors fueling insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country, according to an audit report.

The report, jointly released by Cameroun, Chad, and Niger Republic on the situation with Lake Chad, said to be drying, indicated that the lake that used to be 25,000 sq.kmin in 1960 had shrunk to about 1,500sq.km as at yesterday.

The report, made available to newsmen in Abuja last week, said there is a strong correlation between shrinking Lake Chad and insecurity in the North East of Nigeria.

Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Samuel Ukura, while stressing the need to save lake Chad from extinction said, “we know the importance of water in that part of the region, we have farmers, fishermen, and they have been using lake Chad for various activities.”

Continuing, he said, “Where there is water is in Cameroun or Chad. Our farmers will have to go to Cameroun or Chad to carry out their activities, of course you know the consequences of this. Lake Chad is drying up and it has to be saved. “

Ukura maintained that the lake serves as a source of livelihood to over 30million people through farming and fishing activities, adding that many of them are now jobless displaced.

He said about $14.6billion is needed to revive the Shrinking Lake, stressing the need to transfer water from river Bangui in Central African Republic to the Chad Basin.

He also emphasized the need to update the audit work plan for proper implemented in order to reverse the current trend at the Lake, which had declined to one tenth of its former size over the past 50years.