Lake Chad Restoration: Communities Attitude and Expectations

摘要

Water bodies such as Lakes, rivers, streams and others are been restored or rehabilitated to its natural or close to its natural state in many parts of the developed countries. Lake Chad was formerly the sixth largest Lake and second largest in the World and Africa respectively, the size of the Lake has drastically reduced. As part of the restoration processes, water quality has been an aspect under consideration in the improvement of the Lake Chad. The research projects tend to determine the attitude and expectation of the communals living along the Lake Chad Shore, in terms of water resources management. In this survey, three communities were choosen-namely Baga (Nigeria), Bol (Chad Republic) and N'guigmi (Niger).N'guigmi, the community was excluded from the survey from the fact that it has suffered from severe drought in the past nine years. In Baga and Bol communities, 30 respondents were selected randomly. Structured- and unstructured questionnaires were administered. Results indcates that, the proportion of male respondents outnumber the female respondents, this is due to cultural barrier. On the recent Oil exploration development in the Lake Chad Basin, the proportion of respondents who are supportative in the Oil exploration is 53.3% and 10.0% in Baga and Bol respectively. In comparison, to the proportion of respondents who are unsupportive to the exploration is 13.3% and 23,3% in Baga and Bol respectively.In the water resources management of the Lake Chad, survey shows that 16.7% and 30.0% of the respondents treat their drinking water in Baga and Bol communities respectively while 53.3% and 60.0% untreat their drinking water in Baga and Bol communities. A proportion of 66.7% and 46.7% of the respondents dispose their waste in the bush (open defecation) in Baga and Bol communities respectively. The importance of involving the Primary Stakeholders who are directly and negatively affected needs, consideration in the decision-making and planning process of water resource management. Sociallearning and adaptive management measures need to be integrated in water resources management, to create awareness to the Primary Stakeholders.