CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 RESPONSES, AND THEIR INADEQUACIES
5.1 Introduction: This chapter acknowledges the role of every stakeholder related to the environmental degradation in the Lake Chad Basin, in ensuring the sustainability of the environment and minimizing the threat to security in the region. It acknowledges the fact that there is some level of awareness about the root cause of the issues plaguing the region, and that there have been efforts, albeit inadequate, to prevent, address, or mitigate the effects. In order to ensure that the responses are adequately captured, it is important to group them by stakeholders. In this way, it is also possible to identify where there are obvious gaps.
5.2 Sub-Regional Developments
5.21 Lake Chad Basin Commission …show more content…
In 1994, the Central African Republic was admitted as part of the countries of the Commission. Most recently, Sudan was also accepted as a member of the LCBC, but is not yet participating in activities of the LCBC since it has yet to ratify the N’djamena Convention2. The emergence of this Commission was a critical pointer to the realization by all the countries in the Basin, that a regional solution was the surest way to tackle the management of the …show more content…
This explains why the emphasis was only on the exploitation of the Lake’s resources by Member States. A better-informed negotiation would have had a chapter devoted to the proactive steps that could be taken by all four countries to mitigate the effects of climate change and other natural phenomenon on the Lake’s regime.
The effects of this “omission” are however being observed by all, because even the irrigation projects that were designed have been affected by the decreasing water level in their successful execution. For instance, the Southern Chad Irrigation Project (SCIP) was designed to irrigate 67,000 hectares, but as water levels in the lake dropped in the late 1980s, no irrigation could take place. The LCBC and its effectiveness in managing the Lake Chad Basin is therefore fraught with its own challenges, topmost of which is the seeming “vagueness” of the provisions of the Convention establishing the Commission.
However, it is important to note that the LCBC has recently awakened to the realities of climate change and its effects on the regime of the Lake. To this end, there are now concerted efforts to tackle this. Some of them are discussed in the sections
5.0 RESPONSES, AND THEIR INADEQUACIES
5.1 Introduction: This chapter acknowledges the role of every stakeholder related to the environmental degradation in the Lake Chad Basin, in ensuring the sustainability of the environment and minimizing the threat to security in the region. It acknowledges the fact that there is some level of awareness about the root cause of the issues plaguing the region, and that there have been efforts, albeit inadequate, to prevent, address, or mitigate the effects. In order to ensure that the responses are adequately captured, it is important to group them by stakeholders. In this way, it is also possible to identify where there are obvious gaps.
5.2 Sub-Regional Developments
5.21 Lake Chad Basin Commission …show more content…
In 1994, the Central African Republic was admitted as part of the countries of the Commission. Most recently, Sudan was also accepted as a member of the LCBC, but is not yet participating in activities of the LCBC since it has yet to ratify the N’djamena Convention2. The emergence of this Commission was a critical pointer to the realization by all the countries in the Basin, that a regional solution was the surest way to tackle the management of the …show more content…
This explains why the emphasis was only on the exploitation of the Lake’s resources by Member States. A better-informed negotiation would have had a chapter devoted to the proactive steps that could be taken by all four countries to mitigate the effects of climate change and other natural phenomenon on the Lake’s regime.
The effects of this “omission” are however being observed by all, because even the irrigation projects that were designed have been affected by the decreasing water level in their successful execution. For instance, the Southern Chad Irrigation Project (SCIP) was designed to irrigate 67,000 hectares, but as water levels in the lake dropped in the late 1980s, no irrigation could take place. The LCBC and its effectiveness in managing the Lake Chad Basin is therefore fraught with its own challenges, topmost of which is the seeming “vagueness” of the provisions of the Convention establishing the Commission.
However, it is important to note that the LCBC has recently awakened to the realities of climate change and its effects on the regime of the Lake. To this end, there are now concerted efforts to tackle this. Some of them are discussed in the sections