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One Meal a Day
As Lake Chad vanishes, seven million people are on the brink of starvation
Not so long ago, Lake Chad was one of the largest bodies of water in Africa.
The thick
reeds and vital wetlands around its basin provided vast freshwater reserves, breeding grounds for fish, fertile soil for agriculture, and grasslands where farmers grazed their animals. In 1963, it spanned almost 10,000 square miles, an expanse roughly the size of Maryland. But as climate change has taken its toll, the lake
has shrunk by 90 percent
.
Today, only 965 square miles remain. Wetlands have given way to sand dunes. Farmers have abandoned their fields. Those who still live by the lake struggle to survive, beset by chronic drought and the slow onset of ecological catastrophe.
This looming crisis has only worsened with the rise of Boko Haram, which has driven some
74,000 Nigerians into neighboring Cameroon. In response, Cameroon's government has banned farmers from using some brands of fertilizer, an ingredient used in homemade explosives, and has ordered that staples like maize, millet, and sorghum growing along roadsides be no higher than three feet, to prevent Boko Haram from hiding in planted fields.
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