THE Lake Chad Basin is to become a world heritage site following its nomination to the World Heritage list of the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) within the Biopalt project.
The move is part of efforts to preserve the area.
Director, Water Resources Planning and Technical Support Services in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Alice Ojowu, stated this in Abuja at a consultative/informative meeting on the nomination of the Lake Chad to the World Heritage List.
Mrs. Ojowu said the nomination is expected to have positive implications on the lives of the people of the Lake Chad Basin.
She said the issue of the preservation of the Lake Chad came up for discussion between the Lake Chad Basin Commission and UNESCO after the summit of the Heads of State and government in 2010, when UNESCO was called upon to nominate Lake Chad on the World Heritage list as a protected area and to develop it with the preservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem as a priority to ameliorate the livelihood of the population of the basin.
According to her, the provisional nomination file for the Lake Chad on the world heritage list is titled, “Lake Chad Cultural Landscape” and will cover an area of approximately 2,480,800ha and represents the largest inhabited lake landscape on the planet.
“It is a vast expanse of fresh water in the middle of a desert shared by Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. Presently, over 40 million people derive their livelihood from it. The area has a great diversity of wet ecosystems that make it a tremendous source of life for many animal and plant species,” she said.
Biopalt Ambassador in Nigeria and Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri Prof. Aliyu Shugaba said that addressing the fundamental problem of restoring the Lake Chad and environmental restoration through participatory protective mechanism will go a long way to address the ongoing conflict around the lake and remote places within the basin, while enhancing the sustainable development of the area.
Prof. Shugaba said Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has given an executive order to constitute the Nigeria portion of the lake as a protected area backed by law.

By Tony Akowe