The Famous Lake Chad

Lake Chad is the shallowest in Africa and it has been shrinking gradually. It’s located in the far west of Chad and it shares the border on the northeastern part with Nigeria. It receives water from a river known as Chari River. This river provides it with over 90% of the water and the rest come from Yobe River in Nigeria. It is a very important area to the countries around and provides water to over 20 million people. The countries that benefit include Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.

Lake Chad got its name from the country of Chad which means ‘large expanse of water’ or in other words ‘lake. It’s in not that deep and this has been contributed by the fluctuations of its size every year. The deepest part is only 10. 5 metres which is a very small depth especially for any water body. The climate around is usually dry and some rain falls on June to October. The lake has been shrinking for the last 13,000 years due to climatic changes.

Lake Chad is rich in flora and fauna. It has more than 40 species of algae, swamps and reed beds. On the southern part of the shore there are floodplains covered in Yaere grassland. The lake is made beautiful by the many floating islands. There is a lot of wildlife like crocodiles and hippos. There are various species of migrating and wintering birds like ducks, waterfowls and shore birds. There is an endangered species like Black Crowned Crane whose nesting grounds are being affected by the lakes shrinking problem.


Dickson is the Chief Tour Guide and one of the Directors of Adventure Africa Expedition, he has traveled in many countries in Africa where he built the spirit of adventure and discovered nature hidden wonders in especially tailored walking trails like in Kisoro in Rwanda and Bwindi in Uganda both for Gorilla tracking. For more information on his work please visit http://advenafrica.com/index.htm