Lake Chad At its largest extent the river Mayo Kébbi represented the outlet of the paleolake Mega-Chad, connecting it to the Niger River and the Atlantic. The presence of African manatees in the inflows of Lake Chad is an evidence of that history. Romans reached the lake in the first century of their empire. Indeed, during the time of Augustus lake Chad was still a huge lake and two Roman expeditions were done in order to reach it: Septimius Flaccus and Julius Maternus reached the "lake of hippopotamus" (as the lake was called by Claudius Ptolemaeus). They moved from coastal Tripolitania and
Niger River Fund. The World Bank approved a US$500 million soft loan in July 2007 to finance projects in the basin over a 12-year period. Funding will be awarded in two phases. The initial $185 million credit will go to Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Niger. The second, $315 million investment, is slated for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast. Besides financing the rehabilitation of dams in Nigeria, the loan will also fund the "sustainable management of selected degraded ecosystems and rehabilitation of small water infrastructure" and capacity building. In September 2009, the Nigerian government commenced a 36 billion naira dredging