African countries sharing large water masses face increasing tensions and instability arising from competition for water among various communities, a UN senior official warned in Nairobi Monday.
The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus Töpfer said African lakes were suffering from acute environmental destruction and the continent faced imminent economic losses estimated at 37 billion US dollar in lost recreational value from freshwater masses.
Research carried out by the UN body and a US university and unveiled at the 11th World Lakes Conference underway in Nairobi, says countries face increasing tensions and instability as rising populations compete for life’s most precious recourse, water.
– Sustainable management of African Lakes remains a key responsibility in the continents fight against poverty and towards attainment of internationally agreed developmental goals by 2015, Töpfer noted.
African lakes are facing the pressure of environmental degradation, such as Lake Songor in Ghana, which is under the pressure of intensive salt production.
The River Zambezi is also threatened by what the UNEP calls the “extraordinary changes” as a result of the building of the Cabora Basa dam. Lake Chad, according to UNEP has also shrunk by a stunning 90 percent from 1972 to 2001, satellite-photos show.
Töpfer said African water bodies continue to face “increasing” tensions and instability amidst its growing population struggling for its sustenance, adding, the continents populace “must” heed to the warnings the images portend to avert looming dangers.
UNEP has launched an African lakes atlas, bringing into sharp focus the dramatic and damaging environmental changes affecting Africas water bodies and the alarming toll on its negative effects continues to cause great concern.
It plots changes such as the dramatic shrinkage of Lake Chad in Western Africa, extensive deforestation around Lake Nakuru in Kenya, and the ever increasing population around Lake Victoria, the greatest lake of all.
UNEP estimates that there are about 677 lakes in Africa, holding a total of 30.000 cubic kilometres of water – the largest stored volume of any continent.
Many are important sources of food and employment. – Lakes are the lifeblood of millions and millions of Africans, said UNEP spokesman, Nick Nuttall, who concluded:
– We are not going to meet the Millennium Development Goals (2015 Målene, red.) on water and health unless we protect these important lakes.
Findings of the World Lake Conference will afterwards receive global attention through formulation of the Nairobi Declaration.
Kilder: Xinhua, BBC og The Push Journal
