Nigeria, Cameroon others Move to Save Lake Chad

Nigeria, Cameroon others Move to Save Lake Chad

LCBC Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers considers and adopts Roadmap to save Lake Chad

Engr. Suleiman Adamu who is the Honourable Minister of Water Resources, the 1st Commissioner of Nigeria to Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) as well as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of LCBC on Wednesday 29th August, 2018 in Abuja said that the Council of Ministers has reviewed and adopted the action plan for the implementation of the roadmap of the International Conference to save Lake Chad.

Engr. Adamu in his address at the Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers meeting said that the meeting was convened to consider the roadmap on saving Lake Chad to revitalize the basin’s ecosystems for sustainable livelihood, security and development as adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad hosted by the Government of Nigeria in February, 2018.

The roadmap will address large scale disasters in the region exacerbated by loss of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation, shortage of water to meet all needs, decline in irrigation activities, food security, deterioration of living conditions, increased mitigation, increased competition and conflict over the little available resource and increase in crisis.

Arising from the meeting, a communique was issued which includes inter alia; a call to the Executive Secretary of LCBC to continue in the advocacy of mobilizing finance resources to support the development actions in a bid to guarantee peace and security in the region.

In view of the substantial accumulation of arrears of contributions by member countries, the Commissioners were encouraged to take all necessary measures with their respective Governments to clear the arrears.

At the end of the meeting, the Action plan was adopted and the Executive Secretary and Experts from member countries were instructed to take all measures for its effective implication.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr. Musa Ibrahim, said that the International Conference on saving Lake Chad was organized to create global awareness on the socio-economic challenges arising from the shrinking of the Lake. “The roadmap to be deliberated upon has been prepared with a view to developing a comprehensive programme of action to save the lake from extinction”, he said.

The communique was signed by representatives of five member countries namely: The Republic of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Niger, Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Chad Republic. Libya was not represented.

Kenechukwu Offie