Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Chad Basin

The first project, I will present you, is a cooperation between German Federal Ministryfor Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the LCBC. Their main goal is information and education concerning climate change and how people can adapt on the different living circumstances.

Therefore, the BMZ made a case study by measuring all the climate information they got. Rainfall, temperature etc. and how they developed in the past decades. With this information they created different climate change scenarios for this area.

The paper is very interesting and I recommend it to read, in particular, because of the use of modern techniques like remote sensing, they created nice graphics.

For example a graphic, which shows the NDVI in a dry year and in a wet year.

 

Figure 4: GIZ 2015

For everybody who is not familiar with the short form NDVI. It means Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and it is a method to make a statement concerning the quality and quantity of vegetation by using a special formula on remote sensing data.

With this project the BMZ and LCBC want to achieve a better awareness and understanding of climate change in the population. Especial because according to them (BMZ), the drying of the lake is just 50% by global climate change, the rest is caused by growing water demand, in particular for agricultural.

For this reason, they are trying to make the agricultural use of water more efficiency and better the value chain, by using a combination of traditional and modern adaption methods. By this means, they support food security for the population.

 Figure 5: BMZ

Localisation of the lake

After enjoying the video, now a bit more facts about the lake Chad. I found some information on the official Lake Chad Basin Commission website. I will give you a brief summary.

The lake Chad basin is located in the north of the Sahara in the so-called sahelian zone. It covers four different climate zones with a high variability in rainfall. The more north you go, the fewer rainfall you will see. The Amount of rain varies between 100mm per year in the north to 1500mm in the south of the basin. But more important for the rainfall is the location of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone), which can bring on the one hand a dry season, up to 8 month, or on the other hand a wet season with a few rainy days. Notwithstanding these extreme weather situations, the biggest problem is the high potential evapotranspiration, which is annually higher than the actual rainfall. So on a long term, the lake will run dry, even without a human overuse or fail management of the water.

How dramatic the drying of the lake actually is, you can see in the following picture, which I found in a paper from the LCBC “Saving lake Chad” 2008.

Figure 3: LCBC “Saving lake Chad” 2008

To give you some more facts, the lake shrank from 25.000km2 in the 1960s to less than 1.200km2 today. In the 19^th century, when the Europeans first discovered the lake, it was one of the biggest lakes in the world. Even before, the biggest estimate size of the lake was about 300.000km2 – 400.000km2. (Terra-Online)

It looks like; the reason for the drying lake is just because of the absolute water scarcity in this area, but many people are also blaming the climate change. In particular the involved local people, I found an interview with the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Engr. Sanusi Imran Abdullahi. He is mainly blaming the climate change and especially all the countries, which have driven and still driving it. Therefore, he changed the discussion/problem from a just natural/absolute to a political one. I think mainly to raise a local problem to a global one and to get more attention, which is in this case, at my opinion, absolutely right.

At the moment there are many projects to save the lake. In particular, driven from the riparian states, Cameroun, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Chad. Together they form the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). What kind of projects and how they going to achieve them, will be the topic of my next post.

The Lake Chad Basin

As I promised in my last post, I am going to create a geographical focus. For this, I will use the example of the lake Chad basin.

The lake Chad basin is a high vulnerable area and it is facing a lot of pressure through climate change and anthropogenic influences. The lake shrunk in the last decades by 90%. Which implicates a big challenge for all the nearly 20 million inhabitants in this area.

I found an interesting video from the United Nations with the alarming name “Saving Lake Chad”. Just watch it to get a first impression. 

What is IWRM?

In my last post I gave a short definition what IWRM is about. It was the official definition according to the United Nations. It sounds very reasonable, but at the same time a bit vague. It is not a precise strategy, but more some guidelines.

Therefore, everybody understands IWRM differently. Especially the part “integrated”. I will go with the definition from GWP (TAC background papers No. 4, 2000). According to them, “integrated” means the connection between the natural system and the human system. Unlike other interpretations, which are only describing the natural availability of water.

The idea behind that is, the water manager has no longer a “neutral role”, he does actively influence the availability and quality of water. There are natural limits as well, but there are not the only ones any more. Through pricing, pollution, bad water management or even climate change can the human system affects the natural system. (GWP, TAC background papers No. 4, 2000)

IWRM is a global concept and a reaction of recent developments on our planet. There are several factors, which put pressure on our water resources.

·      Population growth: Not only more demand, but also more pollution in particular in the urban areas.

·      Different lifestyle: More wealth leads to a bigger water footprint, especially more demand for virtual water, for example meat.

·      Globalization: The use of the cheapest production areas often implicates more water consumption and pollution in in more vulnerable areas.

·      Climate change: More natural hazards, an increase of desserts and of course more evapotranspiration through a warmer climate.

Therefore, there is a need for a global water management system like IWRM to face the challenges listed above. (UNEP-DHI Centre for Water and Environment. 2009)

The origins for IWRM you can find in the international conference on water and the environment in Dublin in 1992, where 500 govern­ment experts from 100 countries created the Dublin principles, the key principles to IWRM. (UNEP-DHI Centre forWater and Environment. 2009)

Figure 1: UNEP-DHI Centre forWater and Environment. 2009

These principles helped to create the “three pillars” of IWRM.

1.     “Moving towards an enabling environment of appropriate policies, strategies and legislation for sustainable water resources development and management.

2.     Putting in place the institutional framework through which the policies, strategies and legisla­tion can be implemented.

3.     Setting up the management instruments required by these institutions to do their job.” (UNEP-DHICentre for Water and Environment. 2009)

Figure 2: UNEP-DHI Centre forWater and Environment. 2009

IWRM is not a strict theory, it is more like a guideline or a language, which leads to a better understanding between stakeholders or even different levels like regional, national and across borders. (UNEP-DHI Centre for Water andEnvironment. 2009)

In this post, I tried to explain the IWRM concept. In my next post, I will focus more on a specific area and I will analyse how IWRM actually works. What I already promised in my first post, but didn’t achieve in this one. I am sorry for that!

Introduction

First of all, hi and welcome to my blog. I have never blogged before and I have absolutely no idea, how to do it. But I will try my best!

I choose the topic “integrated water resources management”, which is by the way just my first working title and maybe I am going to change it in a more specific headline, because at my opinion, providing every people with enough and good water is mostly a question of contribution and usage. Even in the driest regions of Africa.

“IWRM is a process which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.” (UNEP-DHI Centre for Water and Environment2009)

That is just the definition, but how are people actually trying to archive this goals?

This and many other questions will hopefully be answered in my next post.