Experts agree that its scarcity in some of the region's countries, such as Chad, is the source of many of the area's woes. But by now, many have completely dried up, and the water level of others is much lower than before, according to Mpeco Etienne, the director of the Central African Republic's waterworks. These facts are the result of irresponsible human activity, which has changed the global ecology and caused climate change. Such change sometimes results in severe droughts, which cause crop and livestock loss, etc. Such a situation has put Chad, one of the world's poorest nations, where the per capita annual income is only 200 dollars, on the brink of disaster.
Humanitarian aid is only a temporary solution.
Jean-Pierre Bidjocka, a rural planning engineer and assistant director of Cameroon's water conveyances department, believes that improving the maintenance of already existing bodies of water would be a good start to this process. For example, we need to clean out the sand and other detritus when there is low water. Olivier Christian, the director of Gabon's waterworks, agrees. Living in a region which normally has plenty of water has meant that we've been lax about preserving our water resources.