Having looked in my past two blog posts at broad issues relating to gender and water across Africa, this week I wanted to focus in on a specific case study. Oladosu Adenike, an author and self-proclaimed "ecofeminist" who has featured in my previous two blog posts, champions the experiences of those from her region of Lake Chad, and so this is where I would like to focus this blog post.
The region of Lake Chad covers the countries of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad and has been an area particularly affected by the activity of insurgence group Boko Haram, a feature which makes it a poignant case study in relation to gender. Boko Haram activity has resulted in around '192,000 refugees across the Lake Chad Basin and 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria and tens of thousands in Cameroon' (Oyewole, 2015).
The lake itself, situated between the Sahel and Sahara deserts is 'prone to wide variation in area' due to fluctuation in desert rainfall, and the fact that around 90% of rainfall is lost through evaporation (Evans & Mohieldeen, 2002). Lake Chad 'is one of the largest freshwater providers in Africa', acting as a water source for farming and personal use for around 30 million people (Griffin, 2020). The Lake Chad river basin spans a staggering 2.4 million square kilometres. Within the river basin, there are 'a number of wet zones, deserts, open-water areas, and fluctuating shorelines' (Griffin, 2020). These fluctuations in weather and water level provide fertile opportunity for the military insurgents of Boko Haram to seize control in the area, with evidence to suggest that 'the vanishing shoreline exposes new prospects for militarised actors to establish and retain control' (ibid).
Alongside the effects of the Boko Haram insurgency in the area, the Lake Chad basin has also suffered natural disasters such as 'drought, severe effects of climate change, desertification, and poor governance that have contributed to deep poverty in the region' (Idika-Kalu, 2020). These issues are ongoing, and in one of the most recent crisis talks between the leaders of Chad and Nigeria (dated 27th March 2021), they discussed the potential solution of an 'inter-basin water transfer' to replenish depleting supplies in Lake Chad and 'restore livelihoods and help tackle insecurity in the area', an endeavour which would cost around 23 billion dollars (Tayo, 2021). This is a controversial suggestion due to the huge cost of the project and the questionable longevity of the solution. Because the focus is predominantly on solving the environmental issues facing the Lake Chad region, little is being done to reverse the historic subjugation and disenfranchisement of women in the area, an issue which predates that of the falling water levels and has only been worsened by Boko Haram activity (Tayo, 2021).
Women are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the activity of Boko Haram, from the effects on trade to kidnappings and the use of women as suicide-bombers (Idika-Kalu, 2020). The effects of this humanitarian crisis are extremely wide reaching, with evidence to suggest that 'the Boko Haram insurgency is associated with slower progress toward preventing and eliminating women's experiences of physical and sexual intimate partner violence' as well as heightening 'controlling behaviours from husbands/partners' causing a 'reduction in women's autonomy in household decision making' (Ekhator-Mobayode et al., 2020).
Many of the social issues faced by the female community of Lake Chad can be linked to the ongoing environmental issues, argues Oladosu Adenike: 'climate change is a threat to girls' education, as it creates an enabling environment for insecurity, and armed groups prohibit Western education - especially for girls... two-thirds of the 10.7 million people displaced in Lake Chad by the climate crisis are women because they depend totally on natural resources for the generation of income' (Adenike, 2021).
Conflict lies however in how best to tackle these issues. Should the environmental issues associated with Lake Chad's decline be tackled first in order to positively affect the social and economic status of women in the area, or vice versa? My opinion is that in order to address the issues surrounding climate change and water resource management in Lake Chad, gender equality must come first. Insurgence groups thrive off society's weaknesses, and gender inequality is arguably the largest social weakness in the Lake Chad region. The education and inclusion of women in high power roles would contribute to the creation of an inclusive and effective action plan for ensuring the prosperous future of the Lake Chad region.
Another well presented post on the complex intersection of water, gender, inequlaity and violence. One thing i thought could be inmproved is the specific geography/geology of lake chad and the informal/formal economic on which most gendered interactions exist on. Good engagement with literature but references need to be embeded.
ReplyDeleteHi Clement, thank you for this comment. I have since added some more information specific to the geography of the region and am going to do a separate post on the relationship between financial inequality and gender inequality.
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