Africa: Drying, drying, disappearing…

Lake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years ago. Today its surface area is less than a tenth of its earlier size, amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years. Climate change and overuse have put one of Africa's mightiest lakes in mortal danger, and the livelihoods of the 30 million people who depend on its waters is hanging by a thread as a result. An unprecedented crisis is looming that would create fresh hunger in a region already suffering grave food insecurity, and pose a massive threat to peace and stability, experts say. "If Lake Chad dries up, 30 million people will have no means of a livelihood, and that is a big security problem because of growing competition for smaller quantities of water," Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission tells IPS in Rome. "Poverty and hunger will increase. When there is no food to eat, there is bound to be violence." The lake, which shrank 90 percent between 1963 and 2001 from 25,000 square kilometers to under 1,500, is bordered by Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria.