Via AllAfrica, a report on how droughts, agricultural irrigation and climate change have reduced Lake Chad’s extent to one-tenth of its former size over the past 35 years and is now giving rise to tensions over its allocation & use: Kanada Souley casts his nets in the low waters of Lake Chad. The 40-year-old is […]
Read more »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 »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 »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 »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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