The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has called on the international community to fully support Nigeria’s quest to save Lake Chad from extinction and revive its potential.
Adamu, who made the call in an interview on a sideline of the just-concluded 2023 UN Water Conference in New York, said it was important to lend his voice to President Muhammadu Buhari’s call to revive Lake Chad.
In his words, “If you recall from the beginning of this administration, President Buhari has made this call in several fora, especially at all the engagements during the Conference of Parties (COP) on Climate Change and his interactions with world leaders.
Read Also: AfDB president calls for swift action to lessen world dependence on fossil fuel
“It is a consistent call because you know the problem we have in the Northeast, the problem of Boko Haram. It has been clearly linked to the lack of opportunities and abject poverty around Lake Chad that was caused by the shrinking of the Lake. It sank as low as 10 per cent of its storage capacity 50 years ago.”
More than 40 million people, according to the minister, had been touched by the shrinking of the Lake, which had a severe effect on their means of subsistence.
According to Adamu, all opportunities for farming, grazing, irrigation, and fishing have been destroyed, and this lack of opportunities has led to poverty in the region, which has served as a breeding ground for Boko Haram terrorists.
Story was adapted from Enviro News
