The Speakers of Lake Chad Basin Commission Member Countries, which comprises Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Central Africa Republic and Libya, have renewed efforts towards revitalizing the shrinking Lake Chad Basin.
The speakers/presidents of the member countries organised the first meeting of National Assemblies of LCBC member countries under the platform of Regional Parliamentary Committee, where they discussed issues on protocol and agreement on how to revive the shrinking Lake Chad Basin.
It should be recalled that the Lake Chad Basin, which covered about 25,000sq kilometres in 1964, has reduced to only about 1,500sq kilometres.
As a result, over 30 million people living around the Lake Chad Basin have lost their means of livelihood such as fishing, farming and other economic and social activities that take place there.
Declaring the event open in Abuja on Friday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said that the committee was established in 2004 and re-inaugurated in 2013 in Niamey, Niger Republic.
The aim of the committee was to partner in the development of the entire Lake Chad and its ecosystem.
Tambuwal said: “Our Committee was established with clear mandate towards supporting the LCBC as sub-regional body responsible for the integrated management of the Lake Chad basin resources in particular and facilitating regional Peace, Cooperation and Security in the basin areas.
“I wish to use this occasion to assure all and sundry that our committee and indeed all the Legislative arms of the LCBC Member Countries are fully committed to these objectives.”
Tambuwal added that the Committee would work closely with Presidents and Heads of Government of LCBC countries, Honourable Commissioners of LCBC as well as the Executive Secretariat in addressing the natural and man-made challenges facing Lake Chad Basin.
In her remarks, Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Reng Ochekpe, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaji Baba Umar Faruk, said that Nigeria granted $5 million out of the $6 million required to carry out the feasibility study of the inter basin water transfer from Ubangui River to Lake Chad in order to recharge the receding Lake.
Ochekpe added that the report had been adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the Commission as a result of the effort of the Nigerian government.
However, the Minister said that further studies to determine the retention capacity of the Lake is required so as to guarantee that water transfer efforts could be sustained.
She disclosed that a donor conference is being organized to take place from April 4 to 5, 2014 in Bologna, Italy to mobilise the required funds towards various programmes to boost the flow regime of water into the Lake Chad.
Ochekpe congratulated the parliamentarians for their efforts to restore the glory of the Lake Chad Basin that would bring about sustainable development of the Basin.
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