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African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

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non-payment of financial dues. Some of these problems have been addressed and things started improvingafter the 1998 Council of Ministers meeting in Abuja, Nigeria;(c) The equipment available to the HYDRONIGER, a major project of the NBA is obsolete and this reduces thequality of the data collected and hence the value of the forecasts made. There is therefore a need to modernizethe equipment in use.Despite its problems, the NBA has had some major achievements, including:(a). Providing a forum for discussion which has helped to minimize conflicts in the sharing of the water resourcesof the basin;(b) Execution of the HYDRONIGER project for hydrological monitoring and forecasting using real time datatransmitted by satellites;© Initiating the Agrymet Project for training and research in hydrometeorology and agro-meteorology;(d) Carrying out a desertification control project to enhance the living conditions of people living in desertifiedareas;(e) Establishment of a documentation center;(f) Carrying out of a sedimentation study;(g) <strong>Development</strong> of a mathematical model of the river Niger;(h) Conducting studies in the area of navigation, hydroelectricity, pollution control, and sedimentation.Source: AWDR National <strong>Report</strong> of CameroonSHARING WATER FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATIONBox 11.6Lake Chad Basin CommissionAchievements and failuresThe commission has made significant contributions in the area of agriculture, fisheries and livestock with theestablishment of five agricultural development centres in the member S tates (UNECA, 2000). Other achievementsinclude:(a) Addressing the problem of the shrinking of the lake area;(b) Studies on road transportation and telecommunication;© Preparation of a master plan for the development of the natural resources of the basin;(d) Studies on planning and managing the water resources in the basin;(e) Creation of a data bank of socio-economic and hydrological data’(f) Rehabilitation of the documentation center;(g) Creation of a remote sensing unit.The main problem that has plagued the LCBC was the disruption of its activities in 1981 and 1986 due to politicalinstability in the host country, Chad. This led to the temporal relocation of the head quarters to Cameroon. Thisproblem has since been resolved but others remain like:(a)The lakeshore forms the boundary for countries that border it. However, the lakeshore boundary is not fixedand is greatly affected by the amount of precipitation. Hence the political boundaries of the countries tend toshift with the water.(b) <strong>Water</strong> rights: The question of who has the right to the water in lake Chad and to how much has not beenaddressed. With the droughts in the 70’s and 80’s in the region and with less reliable rainfall in the basin inrecent years (Isiorho et al., 2002) the water resources in the lake Chad basin have reduced. With most of thelake inflow coming from Cameroon, does she have more rights to the waters in the lake than her neighbours?What role does Nigeria, which uses a large share of the lake water for irrigation, have in insuring the sustainability?Can one nation decide to construct a dam on the River Chari/Logone?Source: AWDR National <strong>Report</strong> of Cameroon269

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