Nigeria’s Water Minister Relaunches Lake Chad Water Management Project

After four years of stalling, the Transaqua Lake Chad water management project may get off the ground now that Nigeria’s Water Resources Minister Suleiman Adamu called for unblocking the project and asking the African Development Bank for help. Speaking as a guest on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja, he “called for more funding and understanding from international partners to save the fast drying Lake Chad from disappearing totally”, as reported by NAN.

The minister recalled that Lake Chad basin countries had unanimously approved the Inter-basin Water Transfer Project in a February 2018 conference in Abuja (in which EIR participated). As part of the declaration of the Abuja Conference on Lake Chad, it was agreed that the African Development Bank should create a $50 billion infrastructure fund for Africa.

Suleiman Adamu noted that funding in that dimension would not only allow for refilling Lake Chad itself, but also for building “a roadway and canals for river navigation”, as well as “many dams and hydropower schemes that will benefit countries like the Central African Republic. We can even have a highway from Lagos to Nairobi to Mombasa, from [the] West Coast to the East Coast. It’s all part of the grand plan. But these things, you have to take them systematically.” Once the MOU with the African Development Bank is signed, Adamu hopes that some $2 million to $3 million will become available for the feasibility study.

The Inter-basin Water Transfer Project from the Congo basin to Lake Chad, originally called Transaqua, has been promoted for decades by Lyndon LaRouche and EIR. Our news service has co-organized several international conferences to promote the project, together with its author, Italian engineer Marcello Vichi. Today, in the context of the emerging multipolar world, Adamu’s effort to involve the AfDB has a real chance of succeeding.