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Nigeria renews commitment to save Lake Chad Basin from shrinking

Xinhua, February 25, 2017 Adjust font size:

Nigeria has renewed its commitment to saving the Lake Chad Basin from shrinking, Minister of Water Resources Suleiman Adamu said Friday.

The move to revitalize the Lake Chad Basin is aimed at reducing the impact of climate change in Nigeria and other surrounding countries, Adamu told reporters in Abuja.

"The seriousness of the problem of Lake Chad prompted the desire to mobilize better and sustainable options to tackle the problem," he said.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has identified climate change, food crisis, security, as well as the displacement of people, terrorism and extremism as some of the issues around the lake.

The Lake Chad Basin is about eight percent of the size of Africa, shared by Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad.

In the 1960s, the lake had the land space of about 25,000 square kilometers but reduced to 2,500 square kilometers in 1985 and later increased to 4,698 square kilometers in 2013.

Nigerian authorities said, as part of the moves to save the shrinking lake, the country has held bilateral meetings with stakeholders, including UNESCO, on a proposed international conference aimed at addressing the water depletion level of the lake. Endit