Lake Chad seems to go through a dry period every so often ( roughly every 3000 years) with the last one around 100 BC/BCE, but an increased demand on the lake's water from the local population has likely accelerated its shrinkage over the past 40 years.
The United Nations Environment Programme says that about half of the lake's decrease is attributable to human water use such as inefficient damming and irrigation methods. The other half of the shrinkage is due to shifting climate patterns. Anada Tiega of the Lake Chad Basin Commission blames climate change for 50 to 75 percent of the water's disappearance.
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