NIGERIA COMMITS N1.65BN TO LAKE CHAD DEVELOPMENT

The Federal Government has demonstrated its commitment to the resuscitation of the drying Lake Chad which provides water for over 20 million people and livestock in the six countries bordering it. It  paid a total of about N1.65 billion.

President Goodluck Jonathan, while addressing the 13th Summit of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC)  in N'djamena yesterday said it was to augment efforts to reverse its shrinking which has reached 90 percent from its original 25,000 square kilometres to just about 2,500 square kilometres in recent years.

The money is made up of $5 million out of a total of $6 million for the feasibility study on inter water transfer to the lake from the Bangui River in Central African Republic paid within the last two years and N900 million yearly contribution to the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) paid in full in October 2010.

President Jonathan, in his capacity as the chairman of the commission, said Nigeria decided to pay the money for the feasibility study of the inter water transfer because of the seriousness of the situation of the lake.

He restated his earlier observation that the lake may become completely extinct in the next few years if nothing concrete was done to revive it. He called for better methodologies for integrated management of the eco system of the basin.

Stressing the need for the resolutions of the summit to be fully implemented, he admonished the participating country on the need for improved trans-border security through the strengthening of the multilateral task force.

??Jonathan urged the sta