Water and Food Sustainability in the Riparian Countries of Lake Chad in Africa

Oluwatuyi S. Olowoyeye () and Rameshwar S. Kanwar
Additional contact information
Oluwatuyi S. Olowoyeye: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Rameshwar S. Kanwar: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: Lake Chad is a strategic water resource shared by more than 40 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the 1960s, it served as a primary source of water for irrigation and fishing in the region, but the capacity of Lake Chad to supply water for irrigation plummeted by 90% at the beginning of the twenty-first century. With some initiatives taken by the neighboring countries, Lake Chad has recovered about 5% of its water volume in recent years. This research conducted an extensive literature review on Lake Chad and its riparian countries. The four major riparian countries were given particular attention due to their significant stake in the sustainability of lake Chad. This review identified and analyzed the water usage trends in this region, both before and after the lake’s decline in water levels. Our research findings revealed that riparian countries around Lake Chad have experienced an 80% increase in population growth and that the lake has now been reduced to 10% of its original size in the 1960s. Animal production in the region has increased significantly, too, particularly in Chad, and this increase of over 75% has contributed to the conflicts between farmers and herders in the region. The possible solutions proposed for the restoration of Lake Chad include increased water harvesting activities in the basin, developing a legal framework for sustainable water use, incentive-based policies for stakeholders to mitigate climate extremes events, establishing a joint water administration for the basin, and introducing regenerative agricultural practices with a highly efficient micro irrigation system.

Keywords: Lake Chad region; food and water security; social crisis; biodiversity loss; policies and governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/10009/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/10009/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:10009-:d:1178317

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().