Lake Chad Basin: GIWA Regional Assessment 43

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the transboundary waters within the Lake Chad Basin. Its purpose is to identify priority environmental concerns, determine their societal root causes, and propose policy options for future mitigation and management. The assessment adopts a multidisciplinary, drainage basin approach that integrates freshwater and marine environmental data with socio-economic information. The scope covers five primary environmental concerns: freshwater shortage, pollution, habitat and community modification, overexploitation of fish and other living resources, and global change. The findings identify freshwater shortage as the priority concern for the region. The analysis concludes that institutional weaknesses, inadequate water governance, and the absence of effective water allocation mechanisms are the core drivers of regional environmental degradation.