Lake Chad Shrinks, Conflict Grows
May 26th, 2012
Via The Council on Foreign Relations, a look at increasing tension related to Lake Chad’s shrinking supply of water: Chadian men collect water with plastic canisters loaded on a hand cart in Lake Chad, on the island of Kouirom, January 27, 2007. (Stringer/Courtesy Reuters) Earlier this week, the New York Times detailed the impact [...]
Read more »Shrinking Lake Chad
June 21st, 2008
Via National Geographic, dramatic satellite images from 1972 (left) and 2007 (right) which show the water-level decline in Lake Chad, once the world’s sixth largest but now one-tenth its former size due to declining rainfall and diversion of water for human use. While not yet a site of water conflict, given the lake’s location at [...]
Read more »Successful Cooperation in the Niger Basin
May 7th, 2008
As reported by AFP, not all water politics are tales of animosity or conflict – there are some examples of successful cooperation. West African heads of state recently adopted a 5.5 billion-euro (8.6-billion-dollar), 20-year rescue plan to save the Niger River from extinction and guarantee the future of 110 million people. As the article noted: [...]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Cameroon & China Strike Water Deal
January 1st, 2008
When first reading the headline of this report at Terra Daily, I immediately thought that China – akin to its other efforts to “lock up” scarce natural resources in Africa (i.e. hydrocarbons, metals, etc.) – had moved its strategic reach further, into the world of water. While the details proved to be slightly less dramatic, [...]
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