Case study: Water isses in Chad.

Case Study: Water issues in Chad

Chad is an African country located in Central Africa, in the south of Libya. It is a landlocked country that measures around 1,2 million square kilometers, so about twice the size of France, with approximately 11,600,000 inhabitants.

Although there are two main climates (tropical in the south and desert in the north), the large area of the country covers many different terrains: arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in northwest and lowlands in south. We can also find in this country the second largest wetland of Africa, lake Chad.

Chad is a republic and its capital is N’Djamena. The GDP per capita is about $2,600 (2014 est.); this shows that Chad is a LIC. Indeed, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Only about 28 % of the population live in urban areas. Majority of the urban population lives in rural areas.

Access to safe drinking water and sanitation services in Chad is among the lowest in the world. First of all, Chad’s northern parts are mostly deserts that have inadequate supply of water; many regions therefore suffer from the lack of water and sanitation. Indeed, only 50% of the population has access to clean water and 9% has access to improved sanitation facilities. This lack of sanitation has caused many cholera outbreak and the degree of risk of infectious diseases is very high.

In addition, due to the violence in neighbouring countries, such as the Darfur conflict, more than 378,000 has seeked refugee in Chad. The country became the host of the world’s seventh largest refugee population. Chad’s water ressources, already scarce, became completely unsufficient and sanitation issues were aggravated.

Another great issue Chad has to face is the progressive disappearance of the lake Chad. Since 1963, the lake has shrunk to nearly a twentieth of its original size, due both to climatic changes and to high demands for agricultural water. The changes in the lake have contributed to local lack of water, crop failures, livestock deaths, collapsed fisheries, soil salinity, and increasing poverty throughout the region.

In addition, the lake has been extremely polluted both by human and animal waste. This has increased the risk of cholera in the area that surrounds.

Even in the country’s capital, clean water is an important issue. For example, the poor neighbourhoods N’Djamena’s outskirts don’t benefit from the city’s utilities grid. They rely on shallow wells or, if they can afford it, water vendors. This water is rarely clean and cholera is easily contracted. Many families spent most of their income to buy one or two jerry cans of water a week, which is barely enough to drink.

In 2012, UNICEF started a project to help these Chadians. In partnership with the Secours Islamique France, UNICEF has started building clean water delivery systems in the poor communities around N'djamena. The wells are far deeper (about 60 meters deep) in order to have a cleaner water than the open-wells, commonly used there. Solar panels fuel the pumps, which suck up and deliver the water to an elevated tank, which in turn feeds two water points.

There are now seven such water points in poor quartiers around N'Djamena. While the water is free for individual households, water vendors pay a minimum amount, which is then used for service,

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