Seen from above in the 1960s, Lake Chad spanned roughly 26,000 square kilometres — about the size of Rwanda. Six decades later, only 1,500 km² remain, a loss of nearly 90% of its surface. The lake is shared by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
The collapse has no single cause: researchers attribute roughly half of it to water drawn off for irrigated farming, and the other half to declining rainfall and climate warming across the Sahel. The basin remains a lifeline nonetheless — close to 40 million people depend on it for fishing, farming and herding.
Sources: World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme.
