Imported User:
Following the imminent threat from the continued collapse of the Lake Chad, water transfer project from Ubangui to the Lake would gulp $14.5 billion.
The project is to resuscitate the Lake and ensure livelihood of about 30 million people living around the Lake.
Speaking at the Lake Chad Day celebration yesterday in Abuja, the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, said that the situation if not addressed, would affect wildlife in the Lake and the human population.
She said: “It is believed that the population of the Lake Chad is over 30 million with over 50 per cent Nigerians. This population is expected to grow significantly with time, it is also a known fact that this population solely depends on the natural resources of the Lake Chad and the region is seriously suffering from a high poverty rate, health issues as well as security challenges.”
In order to address the precarious problem of the drying of the Lake Chad, the minister noted that the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) has embarked on studies and implementation of programmes aimed at reversing land and water degradation tendencies in the basin ecosystem.
Ochekpe further emphasised that solutions proposed and recently approved by the ordinary session of LCBC’s council of ministers held in N’Djamena adopted a five-year investment plan composed of priority projects to save Lake Chad and its environment.
