Existing Solutions

Lake Chad Basin, IWRM, International Charter, Environment flows, Limit for water abstractions

legal

Policy

Technical

An international water charter has been written in order to define “a framework the global purpose of which is the sustainable development of the Lake Chad Basin by means of integrated, equitable, coordinated management of the Basin’s shared water resources and environment”.

6 countries of the Lake Chad Basin in Central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria)

The LCBC (Lake Chad Basin Commission) assigned BRLi for the elaboration of the Charter. The project was funded by the African Water Facility (African Development Bank)

Draft charter is ready for signature.

The Lake Chad Lake Basin faces several water management problems that require transnational vision and framework:

„     The quantitative surface water resource management. The large historical variations of the water level of theLake and its area are mainly linked to the variations of the rainfall on its basin. Thus, nowadays the water withdrawals – for drinking water, cattle and irrigation – don’t impact much the global balance of theLake. But they could become significant in the future if their increase is not limited, especially as the climate change could decrease the inflow to theLake.

„     The qualitative management of wetlands. The Lake is an endorheic system and the pollution can concentrate into theLake and last very long.

„     The ground water management. Several aquifers of the Basin are transnational and the withdrawals or the pollution in a specific point can affect their general level or quality.

„     The ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. The Lake and the floodplains linked to its tributaries are exceptional wetlands ofCentral Africa. Their protection requires international commitment and precise rules, for instance about the maximum authorized withdrawals or the environmental minimum flows to be maintained in the rivers during low or high flows periods.

„     The management of navigation. The Lake itself is shared by four countries (Cameroon,Chad,Niger andNigeria) and principles and rules have to be established in order to guarantee the freedom of navigation.

„     The management of fishing. Around 60 000 tons of fishes are captured each year within theLake. Present fishing techniques preserve fish stocks but the balance is fragile and requires the definition and respect of precise rules.

„     Implementation of new works for water management. Nowadays, except in its Nigerian part, the Basin has very few water management works. Among others, a huge water transfer from the Oubangui river (tributary of the Congo river) to re-fill theLake Chad is under study. The implementation of such works needs prior examination and approval regarding the fact they can cause significant harm to the quantity and quality of theLakeBasin’s water resources and environment (or the ones of other basins).

„     The lack of exchange of data between the riparian countries of the Lake or its tributaries. An observatory of theLake Chad basin has been created at the LCBC and has to be supported by a strong framework in order to become fully operational.

„     All this complex transnational issues could lead to conflicts between countries. Upstream rules have to be defined in order to prevent them.

The process of the Water Charter preparation, writing and extension had led to the following benefits:

„     A better knowledge of the Basin. During the first stage of the work, a huge documentation has been gathered. Quantitative management has been recognized as a core challenge: a specific review, with field visits, of existing water withdrawals has been realized. An inflow/outflow balance of theLake has been computed in order to roughly quantify the different terms (runoff from the tributaries minus the water withdrawals, direct rainfall, infiltration, evaporation). Other environmental challenges have been highlighted. All this work has been synthesized in a preparatory document “Assessment: – The common challenge – Managing shared water resources and ecosystems” which constitutes a reference for the knowledge of the basin.

„     A better knowledge of the possible impacts of an increase of the water withdrawals and a determination of the limits for a sustainable use of the water resources of the Basin A model of the Lake developed by the IRD (a French research institute) has been used to simulate the impact of several scenarios of withdrawals (in the Lake and its tributaries) on the Lake’s level and area and finally define the “red line” not to be exceeded in order to guarantee a sustainable use of water resources. Minimum flows to guarantee the good ecological status of the rivers and minimum wetlands flooding have also been proposed in several key points of the Basin.

„     A higher link between the countries. The numerous workshops (national and regional) have been the occasions of a practical collaboration between the technical teams of the different countries, especially in the process of validation of the final text.

„     A strong framework for the collaboration between the countries and the sustainable development of the Basin. The final text includes 100 articles and numerous annexes. It has been written jointly by a team of water management specialists and an international legal expert and amended during several workshops with the countries. Each word has been weighted in order to constitute an original text, fully adapted to the specific case of theLake ChadBasin.

The key indicators reflecting outputs of the Charter are among others:

-  Records of abstractions

-  Environmental flow and abstraction thresholds are respected

- Exchange of data between countries is operational and the basin observatory is in force

Other Water Charters were previously written, for instance for the Senegal basin (4 countries: Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania) and the Niger basin (9 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria). The Chad Lake Basin Water Charter is nevertheless fully original through its precision and the practical tools which it includes to monitor the water uses. Many other international basins in the world could take advantage of that example to implement a water management framework shared between several countries.

1. The necessity to make legal experts and water specialists work together. The Lake Chad Water Charter is the result of a very precise and close cooperation between legal experts and integrated water management specialists including hydrologists. The legal tool is conceived to be as close as possible to technical and field preoccupations. This strong collaboration allowed for instance the translation in a legal language and in a practical process the practical limits calculated by the hydrologists for the water uses in the basin.

2. The necessity to explain step by step the construction of the Charter and to implicate deeply the different countries as early as possible within the process Not only the Water Management ministries should be involved, but also the Justice Ministry, and if possible other ministries dealing with water issues (Agriculture, Fisheries, …). The adoption and ratification process takes long, and the implication of the authorities concerned may help to shorten it.

The Charter in itself is a major commitment, in line with the historical agreement creating the LCBC (Fort Lamy, 1964) and international conventions on shared watercourses

LCBC

Mahaman CHAÏBOU – Director of Planning LCBC

N’Djamena

Portable/Cell Phone: 00 235 66 29 38 78

Email: machaib@yahoo.fr

http://www.cblt.org/

BRL Ingénierie

Mr. Jean‑Michel CITEAU

Director of Development and Strategic Foresight

Tél. +(33) 466 87 50 18

Portable/Cell Phone: +(33) 688 82 80 38

1105 avenue Pierre Mendès France – BP 94001 –
30001 Nîmes Cedex 05 – France

Email: jean-michel.citeau@brl.fr

http://www.brl.fr/brli/

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