Water Scarcity Ignites Ethnic Clashes in Cameroon
December 21st, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, a look at the impact that reduced rainfall in the Sahel is straining Cameroon’s agriculture industry and sparking ethnic tensions: One hundred thousand people are displaced after ethnic clashes broke out in northern Cameroon earlier this month. The deadly clashes reflect heightened competition over natural resources in an area experiencing rapid environmental change. […]
Read more »Lake Chad: Rising Tensions As Water Dwindles
December 2nd, 2015
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 »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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