Lake Chad replenishment project as late as 2005. The members of the Lake Chad Basin International Commission are Chad, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger. Concerned by shrinkage of the lake's area from in 1972 to in 2002, they met in January 2002 to discuss the project. Both the ADB and the Islamic Development Bank expressed interest in the project. However, the member states of the Congo-Ubangi-Sangha Basin International Commission, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic expressed concern that the project would reduce the energy potential of the Inga hydroelectric dam, would affect navigation on the Ubangi and Congo rivers and
Rail transport in Chad government to build a line that would open the colony’s interior to trade. The syndicate sponsored expeditions in 1902–3 and 1904 to survey the projected route. Several plans or proposals to build railways during the French colonial period (French Equatorial Africa) in Chad, and to connect Chad to other African railway networks (Cameroon, Nigeria, Oubangui/Central African Republic). Early proposals include a line extending from the Cameroon rail system at Douala into Chad in the 1930s. One early unofficial plan was a study for a railway from Douala in Cameroon to Bangui, which was part of the pre-World War I German