Water, Africa and environmental change in the Lake Chad region
Hi, my name is Eilish and I’m a third-year student studying Geography at UCL. As part of my degree I am taking a module called ‘Water and development in Africa’. This blog will focus on the relationship between water and environmental change with a focus on the Lake Chad region in west-central Africa. Why water, and why Africa? The Water Project suggests that without access to safe, clean water, many people will not be able to break out of the poverty cycle. The importance of studying water, especially in Africa, is that water scarcity threatens 2/3 of the continents population (this value was calculated by Falkenmark in 1989 so is likely to be greater now). Falkenmark defines as water scarcity as <1000 m 3 /person/year. However, there is a conflict between what water metrics define as scarcity and how much water many people can access. In some sub-Saharan countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, access is < 25 m 3 /person/year. The Lake Chad region I...