B2 · Upper Intermediate
14 min
food securityenvironmentarmed conflictafrica
The Dying Lake: Fishing, Hunger, and War Around Lake Chad
El lago que se muere: pesca, hambre y guerra en el Chad
Dozens of Nigerian fishermen are feared dead after Chadian military airstrikes targeting Boko Haram near Lake Chad. Behind that headline lies a much larger story: the disappearance of one of Africa's most important lakes and the food crisis it has created for thirty million people.
Docenas de pescadores nigerianos han muerto en ataques aéreos del ejército de Chad cerca del lago Chad, donde las fuerzas chadians atacaban posiciones de Boko Haram. Detrás de esa noticia hay una historia mucho más grande: la desaparición de uno de los lagos más importantes de África y la crisis alimentaria que eso ha generado para treinta millones de personas.
8 essential B2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| seguridad alimentaria | food security | La desaparición del lago Chad ha creado una grave crisis de seguridad alimentaria para millones de personas en el Sahel. |
| insurgencia | insurgency | La insurgencia de Boko Haram ha destruido la economía pesquera de la región. |
| medios de vida | livelihoods | El cambio climático destruye los medios de vida de las comunidades que dependen de los recursos naturales. |
| ahumado | smoked | El pescado ahumado del lago Chad se vende en los mercados de toda la región. |
| desplazamiento | displacement (of people) | La violencia y el hambre han causado el desplazamiento de cientos de miles de personas en la cuenca del lago Chad. |
| cuenca | basin (river or lake basin) | La cuenca del lago Chad es compartida por cuatro países: Nigeria, Níger, Chad y Camerún. |
| irrigación | irrigation | Los sistemas de irrigación han reducido el volumen de agua que llega al lago. |
| círculo vicioso | vicious circle | La pobreza y la violencia forman un círculo vicioso muy difícil de romper. |
There's a lake in central Africa that, fifty years ago, was roughly the size of the Caspian Sea.
Today it's a fraction of what it was.
And this week, people were dying in it.
Or rather, dying on the sliver that's left.
Sí, la noticia es muy triste.
Yes, the news is very sad.
El ejército de Chad hizo ataques aéreos cerca del lago Chad para atacar posiciones de Boko Haram.
The Chadian military carried out airstrikes near Lake Chad targeting Boko Haram positions.
Pero las víctimas no eran militantes.
But the victims were not militants.
Eran pescadores nigerianos que estaban trabajando en el lago.
They were Nigerian fishermen who were working on the lake.
Dozens of fishermen.
Feared dead.
And the thing is, this is not a simple story about military error, though that's obviously part of it.
It opens into something much older and more complicated.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Para entender por qué estos pescadores estaban ahí, por qué Boko Haram está ahí, y por qué este lago importa tanto, hay que entender primero lo que le ha pasado al lago Chad en los últimos sesenta años.
To understand why these fishermen were there, why Boko Haram is there, and why this lake matters so much, you first have to understand what has happened to Lake Chad in the last sixty years.
Es una historia de desastre ecológico y de hambre.
It's a story of ecological disaster and hunger.
Walk me through the lake itself first.
Because most people, I think, have a vague sense that Lake Chad exists but no real picture of what it is or what it means.
El lago Chad es, o era, uno de los lagos más grandes de África.
Lake Chad is, or was, one of the largest lakes in Africa.
Está en el corazón del Sahel, la región entre el desierto del Sahara y las sabanas del sur.
It sits in the heart of the Sahel, the region between the Sahara desert and the savannas to the south.
Hace sesenta años tenía una superficie de unos veinticinco mil kilómetros cuadrados.
Sixty years ago it covered about twenty-five thousand square kilometers.
Hoy tiene menos de dos mil.
Today it has less than two thousand.
Ha perdido casi el noventa por ciento de su tamaño.
It has lost almost ninety percent of its size.
Ninety percent.
That's not a lake shrinking, that's a lake disappearing.
Desapareciendo, sí.
Disappearing, yes.
Y las causas son varias: el cambio climático, la reducción de las lluvias en el Sahel, y también el uso excesivo del agua para la agricultura.
And the causes are several: climate change, reduced rainfall in the Sahel, and also excessive water use for agriculture.
Los países que rodean el lago, Nigeria, Níger, Chad y Camerún, todos han construido canales y sistemas de irrigación que sacan agua del lago y de los ríos que lo alimentan.
The countries surrounding the lake, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, have all built canals and irrigation systems that draw water from the lake and from the rivers that feed it.
So it's a combination of forces.
The rain stopped coming and the demand kept growing at the same time.
I covered a drought in the Sahel back in 2010 and what struck me then was how thin the margin was for these communities.
There's almost no buffer.
Ningún margen.
No margin at all.
Y el lago no es solo agua.
And the lake is not just water.
Es comida.
It's food.
El lago Chad ha sido durante siglos la fuente de proteínas para decenas de millones de personas.
Lake Chad has been for centuries the source of protein for tens of millions of people.
La pesca en este lago produce unas cien mil toneladas de pescado al año, incluso en su estado actual.
Fishing in this lake produces around a hundred thousand tons of fish per year, even in its current state.
En las décadas de los sesenta y setenta, producía mucho más.
In the sixties and seventies, it produced far more.
A hundred thousand tons.
For context, that's comparable to some of the Atlantic fisheries that entire European countries depend on.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y aquí está el problema central: el lago se reduce, los peces se reducen, pero la población alrededor del lago ha crecido enormemente.
And here is the central problem: the lake shrinks, the fish shrink, but the population around the lake has grown enormously.
Hay aproximadamente treinta millones de personas que dependen del lago para comer, para trabajar, para vivir.
There are approximately thirty million people who depend on the lake to eat, to work, to live.
Treinta millones.
Thirty million.
Es casi la población de Canadá.
That's almost the population of Canada.
And into that situation, add an insurgency.
Because Boko Haram didn't just appear out of nowhere.
There's a line you can draw between environmental collapse and the rise of extremist recruitment.
Esa línea existe, aunque hay que tener cuidado de no simplificar demasiado.
That line exists, though one must be careful not to oversimplify.
Pero sí: cuando los jóvenes pierden sus tierras, cuando los pescadores no pueden pescar porque el lago desaparece, cuando los agricultores no pueden cultivar porque no hay lluvia, la desesperación crea condiciones perfectas para el reclutamiento de grupos armados.
But yes: when young people lose their land, when fishermen cannot fish because the lake is vanishing, when farmers cannot grow crops because there is no rain, desperation creates perfect conditions for the recruitment of armed groups.
Boko Haram emerged in the northeast of Nigeria around 2002, 2003.
And their territory expanded specifically into the Lake Chad basin, precisely because it was already a zone of stress and displacement.
Y lo que han hecho en la región del lago es destruir exactamente lo que quedaba de la economía alimentaria.
And what they have done in the Lake Chad region is to destroy exactly what remained of the food economy.
Han atacado aldeas de pescadores, han robado barcos, han matado a pescadores.
They have attacked fishing villages, stolen boats, killed fishermen.
En algunas zonas, los pescadores necesitan protección militar para poder salir al lago.
In some areas, fishermen need military protection just to go out on the lake.
Imagínate: necesitas un soldado para ir a pescar.
Imagine it: you need a soldier to go fishing.
Which brings us back to this week.
The Chadian military was out there targeting Boko Haram, and the Nigerian fishermen who were killed were, in a terrible irony, fishing in the same waters that the insurgency has made dangerous for years.
Es una tragedia dentro de otra tragedia.
It is a tragedy within a tragedy.
Estos hombres arriesgaban sus vidas solo para conseguir comida y llevar proteínas a sus familias y a sus comunidades.
These men were risking their lives just to get food and bring protein to their families and their communities.
Y murieron por un ataque militar que supuestamente quería proteger esa misma región.
And they died from a military strike that was supposedly meant to protect that same region.
La ironía es brutal.
The irony is brutal.
Let's step back for a second.
Because I want people to understand the actual food picture here, not just the conflict.
What does a typical diet look like for someone living around the lake?
What does this fish actually mean on the table?
En estas comunidades, el pescado es la principal fuente de proteínas animales.
In these communities, fish is the main source of animal protein.
Hay una especie que se llama el capitaine, que es como dicen en francés porque Chad fue colonia francesa.
There is a species called the capitaine, as they say in French because Chad was a French colony.
Es un pez grande, de agua dulce, muy apreciado en toda la región.
It is a large freshwater fish, highly prized throughout the region.
Se puede secar, se puede ahumar, se puede vender en los mercados locales y también exportar.
It can be dried, smoked, sold in local markets, and also exported.
So when the fishing collapses, it's not just one food that disappears.
It's the whole protein infrastructure of the region.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y hay que pensar también en la economía.
And you also have to think about the economy.
Muchas familias en esta región no cultivan solo para comer, sino también para vender.
Many families in this region don't just fish to eat, but also to sell.
El pescado seco y ahumado del lago Chad viaja cientos de kilómetros hacia el sur, hasta las ciudades de Nigeria, Camerún, hasta Kano, hasta Lagos.
The dried and smoked fish from Lake Chad travels hundreds of kilometers south, to the cities of Nigeria and Cameroon, to Kano, to Lagos.
Es un mercado regional enorme que mueve millones de dólares.
It is a huge regional market that moves millions of dollars.
I want to ask you something that I think doesn't get raised enough in Western coverage of these stories.
When we talk about food security in the Sahel, there's sometimes an assumption that these are subsistence communities with simple diets.
But that's not really accurate, is it?
Para nada.
Not at all.
Las cocinas del lago Chad son ricas y complejas.
The cuisines of Lake Chad are rich and complex.
Hay platos de pescado cocinados con salsas de tomate, con cacahuetes, con especias locales.
There are fish dishes cooked with tomato sauces, with peanuts, with local spices.
Hay una tradición culinaria muy sofisticada.
There is a very sophisticated culinary tradition.
Lo que pasa es que esa tradición está construida sobre ingredientes que ahora son cada vez más difíciles de conseguir.
What is happening is that this tradition is built on ingredients that are now increasingly difficult to obtain.
And there's a historical dimension here too.
This lake has been a crossroads for millennia.
The Kanem-Bornu Empire was built around it.
Trade routes across the Sahara converged at this water source.
The lake wasn't just food, it was civilization.
Muy bien, Fletcher.
Well done, Fletcher.
El Kanem-Bornu es un ejemplo perfecto.
The Kanem-Bornu is a perfect example.
Fue uno de los imperios más poderosos de África central durante más de mil años, desde el siglo IX hasta el siglo XIX.
It was one of the most powerful empires of central Africa for more than a thousand years, from the ninth century to the nineteenth.
Su riqueza venía del comercio: esclavos, marfil, y también pescado.
Its wealth came from trade: slaves, ivory, and also fish.
El lago era literalmente la base económica del imperio.
The lake was literally the economic foundation of the empire.
And now that thousand-year-old relationship between people and that lake is being destroyed simultaneously by three things at once: climate change, population pressure, and armed conflict.
Tres crisis al mismo tiempo, sí.
Three crises at the same time, yes.
Y lo peor es que se alimentan entre sí.
And the worst part is that they feed each other.
El cambio climático destruye los medios de vida, eso crea inestabilidad, la inestabilidad alimenta a los grupos armados, y los grupos armados hacen imposible responder al cambio climático.
Climate change destroys livelihoods, that creates instability, instability feeds armed groups, and armed groups make it impossible to respond to climate change.
Es un círculo vicioso muy difícil de romper.
It is a very difficult vicious circle to break.
There was actually a proposal years ago, a massive engineering project, to divert water from the Congo River basin up to the Lake Chad basin to refill the lake.
It sounds almost fantastical.
What happened to that?
El proyecto existe todavía, se llama el Proyecto de Transferencia de Agua Intracuencas.
The project still exists, it is called the Interbasin Water Transfer Project.
La Comisión de la Cuenca del Lago Chad lo ha discutido durante décadas.
The Lake Chad Basin Commission has discussed it for decades.
Costaría decenas de miles de millones de dólares.
It would cost tens of billions of dollars.
Requeriría la cooperación de varios países, incluida la República Democrática del Congo.
It would require the cooperation of several countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Y en una región con tanta inestabilidad política, coordinar algo así es casi imposible.
And in a region with so much political instability, coordinating something like that is nearly impossible.
It requires the kind of political will and stable institutions that are hardest to build in exactly the places where they're most needed.
I've seen that pattern everywhere from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa.
Es el dilema clásico del desarrollo.
It is the classic development dilemma.
Las regiones que más necesitan inversión y cooperación internacional son las que menos condiciones tienen para recibirla.
The regions that most need investment and international cooperation are the ones least equipped to receive it.
Y mientras tanto, la gente sigue necesitando comer.
And meanwhile, people still need to eat.
Los pescadores siguen saliendo al lago, aunque sea peligroso, porque es lo único que saben hacer y porque sus familias tienen hambre.
The fishermen keep going out to the lake, even though it is dangerous, because it is the only thing they know how to do and because their families are hungry.
That sentence should probably be repeated.
The fishermen who died this week went out on that lake knowing it was dangerous.
They went anyway.
Y esto es algo que no se menciona suficiente en las noticias.
And this is something not mentioned enough in the news.
Cuando vemos titulares sobre insurgentes o sobre ataques militares en el Sahel, la historia real muchas veces es la de personas ordinarias tratando de resolver el problema más básico y más antiguo de la humanidad: cómo alimentar a tu familia.
When we see headlines about insurgents or military strikes in the Sahel, the real story is often about ordinary people trying to solve the most basic and most ancient problem of humanity: how to feed your family.
Let's talk implications.
Because Lake Chad is not a closed system.
What happens around that lake has ripple effects across West Africa and the Sahel.
The food crisis there feeds displacement, and displacement feeds European politics, which is a chain of consequences that most people never trace back to a shrinking lake.
Es una conexión que existe aunque sea incómoda de admitir.
It is a connection that exists even if it is uncomfortable to admit.
Los debates en Europa sobre la migración, sobre las llegadas en barcas al Mediterráneo, están conectados en parte con la desaparición del lago Chad.
The debates in Europe about migration, about people arriving by boat in the Mediterranean, are partly connected to the disappearance of Lake Chad.
No directamente, no de forma simple, pero la pérdida de los medios de vida en el Sahel es uno de los factores que empuja a la gente a moverse.
Not directly, not simply, but the loss of livelihoods in the Sahel is one of the factors that pushes people to move.
And the response in Europe is almost never framed around the lake.
It's framed around borders and boats.
The source of the pressure is invisible in the political conversation.
Totalmente invisible.
Totally invisible.
Y es una lástima, porque si realmente se quiere abordar la migración o la inestabilidad en el Sahel, es necesario hablar de agua, de pesca, de cambio climático, de acceso a los mercados alimentarios.
And it is a shame, because if we truly want to address migration or instability in the Sahel, we need to talk about water, about fishing, about climate change, about access to food markets.
Es necesario hablar de las condiciones reales de vida de estas personas.
We need to talk about the actual living conditions of these people.
On that note, I want to come back to something you said earlier.
You used the phrase "seguridad alimentaria" and I've heard it before but I realized I've never properly understood the distinction in Spanish between that and just saying food is scarce.
Is there a precise meaning to that phrase?
Sí, es un término técnico que viene del concepto inglés 'food security'.
Yes, it is a technical term that comes from the English concept of 'food security'.
Pero en español hay algo interesante: la palabra 'seguridad' significa tanto 'security' como 'safety'.
But in Spanish there is something interesting: the word 'seguridad' means both 'security' and 'safety'.
Entonces 'seguridad alimentaria' tiene las dos ideas: que haya suficiente comida y que esa comida sea segura para comer.
So 'seguridad alimentaria' carries both ideas: that there is enough food and that that food is safe to eat.
En inglés, en cambio, 'food security' y 'food safety' son conceptos completamente separados.
In English, by contrast, 'food security' and 'food safety' are completely separate concepts.
So Spanish is doing something more economical.
One phrase, two concepts.
English needs two separate terms to cover the same ground.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y hay algo más que me parece curioso: en español, 'alimentario' viene de 'alimento', que viene del latín 'alimentum', que significa lo que alimenta, lo que nutre.
And there is something else I find curious: in Spanish, 'alimentario' comes from 'alimento', which comes from the Latin 'alimentum', meaning what nourishes, what sustains.
Así que 'seguridad alimentaria' es literalmente la seguridad de lo que nos nutre.
So 'seguridad alimentaria' is literally the security of what nourishes us.
Hay algo más profundo en la etimología que en la traducción directa.
There is something deeper in the etymology than in the direct translation.
What nourishes us.
That phrase lands differently when you think about fishermen going out on a dangerous lake to bring fish back to their families.
They were doing exactly that.
Securing what nourishes.
Sí.
Yes.
Y la próxima vez que alguien use ese término como una abstracción técnica en una conferencia internacional, espero que recuerde que detrás de esas palabras hay personas muy concretas en un lago que se muere, haciendo un trabajo muy peligroso para que sus hijos coman.
And the next time someone uses that term as a technical abstraction at an international conference, I hope they remember that behind those words are very specific people on a dying lake, doing very dangerous work so that their children can eat.