Lake Chad, almost gone

Lake Chad has been a source of freshwater for irrigation projects in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. There is a malnutrition crisis in the region around Lake Chad, which has been shrinking in size for decades as water levels recede.

Satellite maps show a dramatic decrease in the size of the lake over the past 30 years.

Since 1963, the lake has shrunk to nearly a twentieth of its original size, due both to climatic changes and to high demands for agricultural water. Since 1963, the surface area of Lake Chad has decreased from approximately 25,000 km2 to 1,350 km2 (Scientific American, 2001).

YEAR	SURFACE AREA OF LAKE CHAD
1966	22,772 km2
1973	15,400 km2
1982	2,276 km2
1994	1,756 km2

Between 1953 and 1979, irrigation had only a modest impact on the Lake Chad ecosystem. But between 1983 and 1994 irrigation had increased four-fold.

About 50% of the decrease in the lake’s size since the 1960s. Research carried out over the past 40 years indicates that the main factors in the shrinking of the lake have been:

• Major overgrazing in the region, resulting in a loss of vegetation and serious deforestation, contributing to a drier climate.

• Large and unsustainable irrigation projects built by Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, which have diverted water from both the lake and the Chari and Logone rivers.

The disappearance of the Aral Sea

The creeping disappearance of the Aral Sea counts as one of the greatest man-made environmental disasters of the 20th century. In the years between 1960 and 2000 alone, the area enclosed by the Aral Sea fell by more than half, from 68,000 km² to some 32,000 km².

The disappearance of the Aral Sea in central Asia was caused primarily by the diversion of the inflowing Amu Dar’ya and Syr Dar’ya rivers to provide irrigation water for local croplands. These diversions dramatically reduced the river inflows, causing the Aral Sea to shrink by more than 50%, to lose two-thirds of its volume, and to greatly increase its salinity. At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea has the potential to disappear completely by 2020.

In 1963, the surface of the Aral Sea measured 66,100 km2, with an average depth of 16 m and a maximum depth of 68 m. The salt content was 1%.


By 1987, 27,000 km2 of former sea bottom of the Aral Sea had become dry land; about 60% volume had been lost, its depth had declined by 14 m, and its salt concentration had doubled.

The former fishing town of Moynaq, where not long ago thousands of people still gained their livelihoods from fishing and fish processing, is today a desert town in which the rusting hulks of ships lie stranded more than 100 kilometres distant from the Aral Sea.


Today, about 200,000 tonnes of salt and sand are carried by the wind from the Aral Sea region every day, and dumped within a 300 km radius. The salt pollution is decreasing the available agriculture area, destroying pastures, and creating a shortage of forage for domestic animals. The number of domestic animals in the region has become so low that the government has issued a decree to reduce the slaughter of animals for food.

Fishing in the Aral Sea has ceased completely, while shipping and other water-related activities have declined; the associated economic changes have taken a heavy toll on agricultural production.


The quality of drinking water has continued to decline due to increasing salinity, bacteriological contamination, and the presence of pesticides and heavy metals.

The devastating effect of poverty on women in Africa

The devastating effect of poverty on women in Africa:

• Above 80 percent of farmers in Africa are women.
• More than 40 percent of women in Africa do not have access to basic education.
• If a girl is educated for six years or more, as an adult her prenatal care, postnatal care and  childbirth, survival rates, will dramatically and consistently improve.
• Educated mothers immunize their children 50 percent more often than mothers who are not educated.
• AIDS spreads  twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among girls that have even some schooling.
• The children of a woman with five years of primary school education have a survival rate 40 percent higher than children of women with no education.
• A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dyingin pregnancy or childbirth.
• This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America.
• Every minute , a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1,400 women dying each day —an estimated 529,000 each year—from pregnancy-related causes.
• Almost half of births in developing countries take place without the help of a skilled birth attendant.

The scale of a map

What is scale ?

The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. Scale is what makes map drawing possible. It takes real life things and reduces them in size many times so they can be shown on a map. 

Every map has a scale printed on the front and you should always check this figure before you start reading it. It will tell you how much smaller the area shown on the map is compared to the same area in real life.

A carthographer (the map maker) reduces the scale, he leaves out more and more details.
Carthographers produce different maps for different uses and with different scales.



Map scale 1 : 1250 - (This map scale is ideal for architects). 

This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 1250 of those units (in this case 1250 cm or 12,5 metres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 10,000 - (Ideal for town developers).


This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 10,000 of those units (in this case 100 metres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 20,000


This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 20,000 of those units (in this case 200 metres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 25,000 - (This map covers a small sized area. This unit of measurement is useful for surveying, so these maps are generally made for outdoor activities).


This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 25,000 of those units (in this case 250 metres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 50,000 - (These maps cover a moderately sized area like a national park. So these maps could be used for planning a day out).

This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 50,000 of those units (in this case 500 metres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 200,000 - (This map covers a large area and is useful for long-range exploration. For example for motorists, and long journeys).

This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 200,000 of those units (in this case 2 kilometres) in real life.

Map scale 1 : 500,000 - (Ideal for seeing the whole country at a glance).

This means that every one unit of measurement on the map (like a centimetre) is the same as 500,000 of those units (in this case 5 kilometres) in real life.

Access to sanitation

Access to sanitation: People with access to improved sanitation (%)

Access to improved sanitation facilities refers to the percentage of the population with at least adequate access to excreta disposal facilities that can effectively prevent human, animal, and insect contact with excreta. Improved facilities range from simple but protected pit latrines to flush toilets with a sewerage connection. To be effective, facilities must be correctly constructed and properly maintained.

More than 2.6 billion people—over 40 per cent of the world’s population—do not have basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water.

Four out of every ten people in the world don’t have access even to a simple latrine.

Five million people , mostly children, die each year from water-borne diseases.

Access to water

Access to water: People with access to an improved water source (%)

Access to an improved water source refers to the percentage of the population with reasonable access to an adequate amount of water from an improved source, such as a household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected well or spring, and rainwater collection. Unimproved sources include vendors, tanker trucks, and unprotected wells and springs. Reasonable access is defined as the availability of at least 20 liters a person a day from a source within one kilometer of the dwelling.

More than 2.6 billion people—over 40 per cent of the world’s population—do not have basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water.

Four out of every ten people in the world don’t have access even to a simple latrine.

Five million people , mostly children, die each year from water-borne diseases.

Child mortality

Child mortality: Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births).


Child deaths are falling, but not quickly enough. Between 1990 and 2008, the death rate for children under five has decreased by 28 per cent, from 100 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births.  That means that, worldwide, 10,000 fewer under-fives die each day.  

The causes of child deaths are related to malnutrition and lack of access to adequate primary health care and infrastructure, such as water and sanitation, in many developing countries. Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and AIDS accounted for 43 per cent of all deaths in under-fives worldwide in 2008, and more than a third of all child deaths were attributable to undernutrition. 

Considerable progress was made in routine immunization against measles worldwide, particularly in Africa, protecting millions of children against this often fatal disease.