Responses to natural and man-made hazards in Borno, Northeast Nigeria

This is a study of the responses of the people of eastern Borno to the twin hazards of drought and of an irrigation project stranded by the recent low level of Lake Chad. The environmental awareness of the people has been much influenced by access to information, particularly radio. There was a perceptual dissonance; drought is discerned as a natural act of God, but lake recession is seen as man-made. There is also a gap between responses perceived as appropriate and actual responses consequent on the constraints imposed by the process of modernization, notably the introduction of the South Chad Irrigation Project (SOP). Traditional response mechanisms involving the norm of reciprocity, the use of community resources, agricultural adaptations and sharing have become relatively insignificant in Borno. These are being replaced by emigration, lake floor cultivation and household diversification