How a transboundary water crisis became a global security crisis

When we’re talking about Water and Politics in Africa there is no way we can leave out Lake Chad. Let's unpack the issue a little further.

The Lake Chad is amongst the largest freshwater lakes in Africa, covering an area of around 8000 km² on average in the period between 2000 and 2015 (World Bank, 2016). The Lake Chad Basin is considered one of the greatest wetlands in the region in Africa. 

Lake Chad in 1963, 1973, 1987 and 1997. The red parts show vegetation. (Source: guardian.co.uk)

Lake Chad has gone through an extraordinary development; it shrunk by around 95% from the 60s to the 00s but has in recent years gained volume to its current size (World Bank, 2016).
Interestingly, the size of the lake is the core of frequent debates about the lake, see for instance Magrin (2016) for more on that. In short, since there is no (reliable) long-term record of the lake (covering more than the last 80-100 years) the recent shrinkage of the lake is considered temporarily (Odadda et al., 2006). However, the stigma of the “disappearing lake chad” has already made its way into mainstream media and hydro-political debates around it. Yet, it is not fully understood in which way different determinants impact the growth and shrinking patterns of the lake (Hansen, 2017). Climate change contributes to the decreasing water level. However, there are a number of further factors which are considered key for the remarkable development of the Lake Chad three of which will be examined in this post.


Firstly, a dominant factor is the growth in population and the subsequent rise in demand for fresh water. Usually, population growth increases water stress on the water systems linked. The Lake Chad itself functions the motor of an entire economy, functionally providing numerous resources for around 2 million people. Indirectly, the lake plays a crucial role in the hinterland regions around the lake accounting for around 14 million people. The entire lake basin is considered to support around 50 million people (Hansen, 2017) - impacting every area of life ranging from drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to food security and irrigation, energy and industries and crucially, peace and conflict. Contradicting demands, an 'authoritative manner' (as mentioned in a former post) on allocation and use by different stakeholders fuel hydro-political conflict.(Asah, 2014). Hence Asah (2014) speaks of a hydro-political security complex (2014: 38).
As a gigantic ecosystem, it forms the habitat and foundation of life for billions of animals and plants. Consequently, the growing population relying on the lake put an increasing pressure on the lake system - bending the eco-system services over to its edges which eventually becomes visible in a dramatic decline in water level. While the economic function of a food and water supplier might be roughly monetised, the function as a habitat for endemic species and as a conflict zone add new dimensions to the value of the basin which, is further destabilized by each shift in water level (World Food Programme, 2016).

Secondly, there is the lack of sufficient management scheme throughout the entire catchment area. The Lake Chad Basin Commission was established in 1964 but is considered an ineffective institution through insufficient cooperation and overexploitation (Asah, 2014). One key factor here is the challenging geopolitical and institutional complex. The Lake Chad Drainage System stretches over four different countries Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon. Within each of these countries, there are again heterogenic administrative structures concerned with the water management. In Nigeria, for instance, the catchment area is divided into two individual administrative zones causing friction and incoherent management. Here, irrigation promoted by the agencies fed from the tributary to the lake Chad lead to a reduced influx to the lake as well as the two agency disputing over a fair share of water from the tributary for the individual administrative zones. Additionally, there is a large number of further parties involved or influenced by the rivers and lake system management (such as local farmers, nomads, representatives of industries equipped with varying levels of political and financial capacities to get a saying in the hydro-politics around the water) again challenging effective cooperation. A large number of stakeholders, as well as a highly uneven distribution of power, eventually leads to increasing potential for conflicts between the different stakeholders (Martins, 2001).

Thirdly, a  less intuitive factor relevant for the lake is livestock. Usually, ground vegetation around river basins like the Lake Chad basin provides crucial eco-system services since it increases the water capacity of the soil. Intensive livestock husbandry (snowballed also by the beforementioned population growth) and the resulting extensive grazing potentially reduce ground vegetation to such an extent, that it overrides the ecological function of the vegetation. This so-called grazing pressure thus provokes desertification (Geist, 2016). At the same time, livestock provides an important pastoral resource and is inextricably linked to the local economy and food security.

A geopolitical hotspot. (Source: NASA)

The accumulation of factors such as the above examined, that shape the Lake Chad area: A lake which is rapidly and dramatically varying in size and a loss in volume by staggering amounts. At the same time, we find millions of people and animals around the lake depending on it and a complicated political and institutional arena. One can consider the Lake Chad Crisis as a tragedy of the commons; each country and administrative zone depends on the lake and its provision of ecosystem function while (potentially) contributing to the crisis through internal water abstraction.

International attention grew when this suddenly became an international affair due to the interest of overseas governments in peace - as with resilience at such a low point, terrorism hits. UNICEF (2017) reports that by no 2.3 million people have been displaced due to threats through the terror group Boko Haram. Slowly, the international community reacts to this crisis and sends out aid. But for a too long time, the former water crisis in around the Lake Chad has been left alone (United Nations Development Program, 2017) – allowing terror to take over and transforming the transboundary water crisis to a global security crisis. An international UN conference in February 2017 made the multidimensionally Lake Chad crisis a matter of discussion. The Lake Chad has risen to become a matter of international and inter-continental hydro and security politics.