VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNJ #0404/01 2610923
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180923Z SEP 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7241
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000404 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/C 
ACCRA FOR REO - FISHMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV PREL EFIS EWWT PHSA CD
SUBJECT:  LAKE CHAD BASIN COMMISSION FIGHTS NATURAL RESOURCE LOSS 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (U) Cheibou Mohamed, Project Director at the Lake Chad Basin 
Commission (LCBC), a regional body in charge of water resource 
management for one of Africa's most significant environmental 
challenges, briefed Embassy staff on the organization's history and 
current activities.  Mohamed said that with the help of the 
international community, LCBC is undertaking projects and programs 
to improve the current state of Lake Chad, whose surface area has 
shrunk from 25,000 square Km in 1964 to merely 2,000 Sq Km today, 
yet whose basin still supports some 30 millions people.  As part of 
the LCBC's effort to save the lake, the Director added, the 
organization was looking to transfer water from CAR's Oubangui River 
into Lake Chad.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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HISTORY OF LAKE CHAD BASIN 
AND THE COMMISSION 
-------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Lake Chad is located at the northwestern corner of Chad, and 
is bordered by Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon as well as Chad.  The 
lake is fed by the Chari, Logone, and Komadougou rivers.  The Lake 
Chad Basin supports approximately 30 million people whose way of 
life involves agriculture and nomadic and semi-nomadic husbandry and 
fisheries. 
 
¶3.  (U) Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria joined together and 
founded the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) on May 24, 1964 to 
address degradation of the lake.  Since the inception of the LCBC, 
CAR and Libya have also become members.  The regional body's goals 
are to promote rational and sustainable use of the basin's water 
resources, to coordinate regional development, and to resolve any 
conflicts regarding resource usage that may arise among member 
countries.  The LCBC relies on member countries' contributions to 
finance basin projects and to sustain an operating budget. 
Contributions are assigned based on the size of each country's GDP; 
thus Nigeria provides 52 percent of the budget, followed by Cameroon 
with 26 percent, Chad with 11 percent, Niger with 7 percent, and CAR 
with 4 percent. 
 
¶4.  (U) Lake Chad's challenges are extreme.  The region has 
experienced declining annual rainfall over a long period and 
persistent drought in the 1970s and 1980s, in addition to 
desertification, and severely reduced inflows into Lake Chad, 
according to LCBC interlocutors.  As a result, the surface area of 
the lake has shrunk, and associated agriculture, livestock and 
fisheries are in serious decline.  The current surface area of the 
lake is approximately 2,000 km square, which is less than 10 percent 
of its historical size. 
 
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PLETHORA OF CURRENT PROJECTS 
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¶5.  (U) Cheibou Mohamad, the commission's project director, shared 
with econoff and econ LES a general description of the current 
activities of the regional body.  Mohamad said that the commission 
had helped each member country develop a National Action Plan, which 
in turn formed part of the LCBC's overall Strategic Plan.  He said 
that the commission was currently involved in some 35 projects in 
the Basin. 
 
¶6.  (U) Mohamed indicated that the African Development Bank (ADB) 
was assisting the LCBC to draft a water charter to define use of 
water resources among country members.  Germany was funding two 
projects to increase understanding of the Basin's surface and 
underground water and to identify possible links between the two. 
Mohamed also noted that the European Union was helping fund a 
project on management and sustainability of the Basin's surface and 
underground water. 
 
¶7.  (U) According to Mohamed, the ADB was funding half of a 
Sustainable Program for Development project, whose total cost was 60 
million USD, adding that there was also Islamic Bank for Development 
(IBD) and World Bank (WB) interest in the project.  According to 
Mohamed, the project aimed at protecting the lake and basin by 
fixing dunes, tackling degradation, preserving resources (including 
rare species), and establishing a 2 million USD Development Fund for 
member countries to finance local initiatives.  Mohamed also said 
that the LCBC was in the third year of a six-year project to address 
HIV prevention and reduction in the basin.  The 12 million USD-worth 
of projects was funded by the ADB, he added. 
 
¶8.  (U) Mohamed noted that a September 2007 visit of UNSYG Ban, who 
called on the international community to rescue Lake Chad, had 
opened the door to more international partnerships and resources for 
the commission.  He cited the ADB funding of the 30 millions 
USD-worth Project as a result of Ban's call.  Still, concrete 
international assistance was still slow to arrive, Mohamed 
conceded. 
 
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BRINGING WATER TO LAKE CHAD 
--------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U) Mohamed described several long-term projects, including the 
possibility of transferring water from CAR's Oubangui River to Lake 
Chad.  He stated that the commission had hired a team of consultants 
to undertake a feasibility study, to include addressing the concerns 
of the three Oubangui Basin countries: Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and 
CAR.  The study would evaluate the possibility of building a 
hydro-electric dam on the Oubangui, improving year-round 
navigability of the river, and the possibility of connecting the 
Oubangui with Chad's Chari River via a 145 km conduit.  The Director 
said that the study would also look at the flow and volume of Chad's 
two main rivers, the Chari and the Longone, that flow into Lake 
Chad.  If the rivers' conditions were found to be sufficient, water 
from the Oubangui might not need to be transferred to Lake Chad, 
Mohamed noted. 
 
¶10.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
SBREMNER