The setting of Lake Chad

Just a quick post on the setting of Lake Chad which I will inevitably be referring to in relation to environmental change in later posts. 
Table 1: Countries contributing to the Lake Chad Basin, excluding Libya due to lack of water contribution.


 Table 1 shows the countries which contribute to the Lake Chad basin. The basin covers nearly 2.4 million km2 and as expected, Chad is home to the highest percentage area (43.9%) of the basin. However, Chad ranks 4th for average annual rainfall in the basin areas at 400mm, compared to Central African Republic (CAR) which receives 1215mm on average although the basin only covers 9.2% of the CAR's area.


Figure 1: 2010 schematic map depicting Lake Chad's basins.
Source: OpenEdition

Lake Chad has 2 basins (the north and south), separated by the Great Barrier and each basin responds very differently to drought (Luxereau et al. 2012). Figure 1 shows both basins as well as the location of the Great Barrier. Figure 1 demonstrates that there is almost no permanent marshland in the Northern basin and on the other hand, almost no irregularly flooded marshland in the Southern basin. The surface area of the lake this year (2018) is thought to be around 1,500km2 and therefore only covers 0.06% of the 2.4 million km2 basin  (UN Environment Programme 2018).

The Chari and Logone rivers are the main water sources flowing into Lake Chad, the flow of which has significant decreased in recent decades (FAO 2018). Alongside this decrease in flow, evapotranspiration remains high at 90% as a result of a long dry season with high temperatures and low humidity (Evans and Mohieldeen 2002). Average rainfall in the basin varies from less than 100mm to over 1,500mm from the northern to southern region of the basin (GWP 2011).

In conclusion, the main point I wanted to make was that significant changes have occurred in the Lake Chad basin in recent decades. This highlights the importance of spreading awareness of the situation in the region as well as the importance of environmental change through climate change in Africa.

 Eilish

Comments

  1. Unknown31 October 2018 at 05:53

    Hi! I think it's pretty interesting that your blog is focusing on Lake Chad. I mentioned briefly about Lake Chad in one of my posts, but that was only because I saw it being mentioned in a journal on a subsaharan perspective of climate change impacts on water resources. Due to the nature of my blog, which is going to be more of a general look on environmental change and water, I look forward to reading how you develop your ideas through this particular region! :)

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    Replies
    1. Unknown31 October 2018 at 05:55

      Hi Eva, I'll take a look at your post focusing on Lake Chad! I hope to eventually expand my focus to include more regions of Africa in later posts, while referring back to Lake Chad.

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