Lake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years ago. Today its surface area is less than a tenth of its earlier size, amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years. Photo retrieved from: www.onepennysheet.com
“The drying out of Lake Chad in Africa has caused a flood of climate change refugees and misery.
The lake remains living proof of the impact of climate change in Africa, particularly significant this year as the continent hosts the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Durban, South Africa.
“The lake has dried up and the trees have died. Our camels no longer produce milk — they have no grass to eat,” said Halime Djime, a resident of the region. “We see animal carcasses everywhere. It is very dry.”
In Chad, the average rainfall since 2007 has been half of what farmers need to grow crops and graze animals.
Lake Chad has shrunk from 9,600 square miles in 1963 to its current size of about 502 square miles. On top of rising temperatures drying the lake, people are draining the lake to make up for the lack of rain. Most of the fish are gone, exarcebating the famine.”
“It’s a severe and silent problem,” said UNICEF Chad’s nutrition chief, Roger Sodjinou. “Our latest figures show that 225,000 children are dying every year from malnutrition in Africa’s Sahel belt”
Read more: Climatewire
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