Lake Fitri

Endorheisch

The Lake Fitri is located in the center of the Chad about 300 km east of N'Djamena and 100 km west of the city Ati in the Batha region, in the center of the settlement area of Bulala. The lake is normally about 50,000 hectares, may triple in rainy years but. The freshwater lake is flat and is fed by seasonal rainfall and inflow from its 70,000 km ² large catchment area. The largest inflow is the seasonal Batha River ( Bahr el Batha ), which gradually brings water from the east from the Wadai massif.

The salinity of the lake is low, as with other Sahel lakes in the Chad Basin. In the vernacular of the Lake Fitri is called the little brother of Lake Chad, which until 5,000 years he was a part of the Mega - Lake Chad in the age of Tschadien. The lake is an important source of food for the local population, as more than 3,000 tons of fish are caught per year in him.

Similar to other lakes of the Chad Lake Fitri is not quite as big as before. In addition, the normally permanent lake may fall completely dry in severe droughts, as at the beginning of the 20th century and 1984 / 85th It was in 1990 explained by the Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance, this area covers 1950 km ² around the lake.

Source

• Ramsar Information about Chad 172 kB PDF file
• The Lake Fitri to BirdLife International