Nigeria To Seek Alternative To $15bn Lake Chad Recharge

Nigeria is to seek alternative to recharging the Lake Chad basin through inter basin water transfer from Congo basin, a project that has been estimated to cost $15 billion.

Mr Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources,  revealed this during a twitter chat with social media influencers and other Nigerians.

Furthermore, the decision of the government to seek an alternative to save the basin is due to the high cost of the inter basin water transfer which a feasibility study had shown would cost about $15 billion.

Also, the basin had lost over 90 per cent of its surface area in the last 30 years and would cost about $15 billion public private funding to execute, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed in 2016 after a regional summit in Abuja.

However, responding to question asked by Nigerians on tweeter using the hashtag: #ASKHMWATERRESOURCES, Mr Suleiman Adamu said that the project was too expensive to be easily funded.

According to him, the ministry would be organising an International Conference before the end of 2017 to seek an alternative and cheaper solution to address the shrinking of the Lake Chad.

“Lake Chad shrinking is a direct consequence of the insurgency in the North East because people no longer use the water.

“We would be organising an International conference before the end of the year to discuss the shrinking of the Lake and the option available to us to restore the basin. After the conference, we will be able to confirm the best, cheaper and more sustainable option.

“The shrinkage is a very serious problem and we can never know what is going to happen along the line. There is also evaporation and desertification as well,” he said.

Answering questions about dam management in Nigeria, the minister said that the ministry had moved away from previous practices where proper feasibility study was not conducted before dams are cited and constructed.

He pointed out that  many dams in Nigeria are outliving their life spans even though they had not been put to proper use.