CHAD / LAKE CHAD DISAPPEARING

Moussa, like his father and grandfather earns his living fishing. Little has changed in the way they work. But this way of life - and life itself for those around the lake - is under threat. Images from space show how a huge body of water fifty years ago is now just a twentieth of that size. As the waters have receded land that was once fertile has turned dusty and barren. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:41
• Production Date: 5 February 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: DEVELOPMENT; ECOSYSTEMS; ENVIRONMENT; MARINE RESOURCES
• Geographic Subject: CHAD
• MAMS Id: U110205b

Description

STORY: CHAD / LAKE CHAD DISAPPEARING
TRT: 2.41
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: FRENCH / CHADIAN ARABIC/ NATS

DATELINE: DECEMBER 2010, LAKE CHAD, CHAD

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, man on boat in lake, fishing on Lake Chad
2. Med shot, man’s hands on fishing net
3. Wide shot, boat on a lake
4. Close up, hands on fishing net
5. Close up, fish
6. SOUNDBITE (Chadian Arabic) Moussa Adam:
“We used to catch big fish in the lake here – but now look how small the fish are that we catch.”
7. Med shot, lake
8. Med shot, man with fishing net
9. Close up, fish
10. Med shot, man with fish
11. SOUNDBITE (Chadian Arabic) Abakar Gana Saleh, Village Chief:
“We give each person one fish – but the problem is what happens when there are no fish. No fish means no food – and no jobs.”
12. Wide shot, aerial Lake Chad
13. Wide shot, aerial Lake Chad
14. Wide shot, NASA images of Lake Chad from space getting smaller
15. Pan right, dry lake bed
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Yakowra Mallom, UNICEF Bol Office:
“At the start we didn’t know anything about the problem of malnutrition. But now the figures are enormous. The children are all malnourished. There are no more fish. There’s no more milk. no maize, vegetables or cereal.”
17. Med shot, water
18. Wide shot, water dam
19. Med shot, man in field
20. Med shot, man in field
21. Wide shot, men in field
22. Wide shot, animal herd
23. SOUNDBITE (French) Ahmat Tidjani Mahamat Boukar, Mayor of Bol:
“Rich countries must think also of us in Africa – and the poor people here who are in the process of dying because of hunger and shortages of water. Water for us is life. They must help us to survive as a minimum."
24. Med shot, watering can on plants
25. Wide shot, man watering plants
26. Wide shot, men walking field
27. SOUNDBITE (French) Saleh Sagoubi ,Tree Planting Association:
“I was born here – I grew up here. And I want the lake to come back. Not just for for me – but for the children of the future. To stop the Sahara we must make lots of effort day and night we must work. The desert will be stopped one day by trees.”
28. Med shot, men getting water from well
29. Med shot, men getting water from well
30. Med shot, man watering plants
31. Wide shot, boy by lake
32. Wide shot, dry land
33. SOUNDBITE (French) Farid Dembell, Society for the Development of Lake Region:
“If there are solutions we must find them – The lake is in the process of disappearing and the lake feeds many people. Not just here but in other countries like Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger – they are all people who live on Lake Chad.”
34. Wide shot, people by lake’s edge
35. Wide shot, man by lake’s edge
36. Close up, pan up, plates of food to people
37. Wide shot, sun down by lake

Storyline

Early morning on Lake Chad. Moussa, like his father and grandfather earns his living fishing.
Little has changed in the way they work. But this way of life – and life itself for those around the lake - is under threat.

SOUNDBITE (Chadian Arabic) Moussa Adam, Fisherman:
“We used to catch big fish in the lake here – but now look how small the fish are that we catch.”

Ten years ago, these would have been thrown back. Not anymore, every fish no matter how tiny will be shared out in the village.

SOUNDBITE (Chadian Arabic) Abakar Gana Saleh, Village Chief:
“We give each person one fish – but the problem is what happens when there are no fish. No fish means no food and no jobs.”

From the air, the fishermen’s problem is clear to see. What was once one of Africa’s largest lakes is now a patchwork of weeds, ponds and islands.

Images from space show how a huge body of water fifty years ago is now just a twentieth of that size. As the waters have receded, land that was once fertile has turned dusty and barren.

SOUNDBITE (French) Yakowra Mallom, UNICEF Bol Office:
“At the start we didn’t know anything about the problem of malnutrition. But now the figures are enormous. The children are all malnourished. There are no more fish. There’s no more milk. No maize, vegetables or cereal.”

Where food is being grown, it’s in irrigated fields like this. But overuse and abuse of the water has contributed to the shrinking of the lake.

The local community says it’s the weather that’s the biggest factor. It’s now hotter and drier here, a result they say of global climate change.

SOUNDBITE (French) Ahmat Tidjani Mahamat Boukar, Mayor of Bol:
“Rich countries must think also of us in Africa – and the poor people here who are in the process of dying because of hunger and shortages of water. Water for us is life. They must help us to survive as a minimum.”

This volunteer association is planting trees as part of an ambitious plan to build a green belt across the Sahel to stop the spreading of the Sahara desert. They’re hoping it will lead to the lake’s return.

SOUNDBITE (French) Saleh Sagoubi ,Tree Planting Association:
“I was born here – I grew up here. And I want the lake to come back. Not just for for me – but for the children of the future. To stop the Sahara we must make lots of effort day and night we must work.”

Such is the level of desperation that there has even been talk of diverting the region’s rivers to refill the lake.

SOUNDBITE (French) Farid Dembell, Society for the Development of Lake Region:
“If there are solutions we must find them – The lake is in the process of disappearing and the lake feeds many people. Not just here but in other countries like Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger – they are all people who live on Lake Chad.”

At its current rate of decline the water could be all be gone within twenty years. For the people of Lake Chad, climate change is already a matter of life and death.