KAMPALA – Over the weekend, I visited one of the beaches along the banks of Lake Victoria. This is the same beach where many revelers including myself used to swim in the early 1990s. By then, the water was bluish, was transparent and was clean without any impurities. Many years down the road, the beach is a shadow of its past with dirty water and so is the entire Lake Victoria.
The water is greenish, clogged with polythene bags, pieces of wood, used bottles, pieces of cloth, with a bad stench and is more of an unpurified sewerage collection but unknown to many people lake Victoria has ever dried up completely in the past 10 centuries and it could happen again. When environmentalists warn people about the possibility of Lake Victoria drying up, it sounds like a joke and a farfetched imagination that can only happen after the biblical rapture.
Based on historical and geologic observations, researchers have gathered date showing that Lake Victoria can dry up very quickly with small decreases in annual rainfall. This when coupled with what is happening now could cause the waters in the lake to reduce or even dry up if no action is taken now. We cannot rely on nature to protect the future of Lake Victoria.
In our own country Uganda, the waters in Rwizi River have reduced substantially due to man’s activities and the harsh weather. Elsewhere, Lake Ol-Bolossat in Kenya dried up under very mysterious circumstances while the waters in Lake Chad have been sinking substantially over the years and so is Lake Ngami whose reduction in water levels was attributed to droughts observed in Okavango delta and Angolan Highlands. The Zambezi River is also on its way out.
As regards my annoying visit to Lake Victoria, I personally made several rounds on the Lake right from Entebbe to Gaba Beach. I noticed that all the swamps that once acted as water catchment areas have been reclaimed for construction. The papyrus plants that used to clean the water before releasing it into the Lake have been cleared for human activity including shoreline encroachment, degradation depleting vital flora, fauna while at the same time there are uncontrolled well channels that collect dirty water from Kampala direct into the Lake.
The Bugolobi wet land that was once home to several species of papyrus known to sieve dirty water is no more. Their space is now a hub of buildings surrounded with well done drainages that carry with them sewerage and all the pollutants from Kampala and beyond. Most of the activities at the banks of the lake have been the result of dumping of stones and murram. Infact most of the buildings are now competing for space with the Lake. But who are these people that are so powerful to the extent of destroying the Lake without any one stopping them. Where is the National Environment Authority, why are they mute when the future of the lake is at stake.
In this country Uganda, the environment is one areas that largely survive on the mercy of a few, not even the government is doing much, most of the focus seems to rotate around development even if it comes at the expense of nature. The few organisations that are mandated or a funded to protect the environment are either subdued or are in bed with the government or investors leaving the environment to determine its own fate.
By and large, I was forced to visit other places on the showers of Lake Vitoria to enable me pick first hand data for this article. On Monday, I had to brave the rains to monitor the volumes of water coming in from the drainages. I watched in shock as the dirty drainage water carried with it stones, pieces of wood, dead animals, domestic refuse, broken glasses, plastics, polythene bags, soil, building materials, metals among others. All these are carried direct and deposited into Lake Victoria as the sieving points are not big enough to block the entry into the lake. Even if they did, it is only the physical items that are relatively regulated; the silt from dry land goes direct into the lake with all its dirt.
At the end of the rain, I was able to observe how dirty the water was and imagined how much silt was carried and dumped into the lake. Silt refers to the dirt, soil, or sediment that is carried and deposited into the water body. After a few hours of watching large volumes of dirty water, the situation only cleared in the evening. As I watched in shock, my hope was that the silt would be carried away to the water banks or towards Jinja and then into the river Nile. However, when I eventually stepped foot into the lake, I realized the silt settles at the bed of the lake.
Am not asserting that all silt is bad, some silt in water is normal and healthy but the truth is that the volumes deposited into Lake Victoria are excess. Many additional tons of silt finds its way to the lake mainly during rainy seasons, negatively impacting water quality. I observed that siltation, results from erosion and land disturbing human activities, such as bad soil disposal methods, construction and above all the rampant destruction of green vegetation cover.
Siltation negatively impacts ecosystems in many ways more so the aquatic life. Excessive silt clogs gills, and smothers eggs and nests. It can bury habitat aquatic insects need for survival, which impacts organisms up the food chain that eat these insects for survival. I observed that the entire water bed is now slippery as sand in the lake has either been dug out or covered by the huge mass of silt. In effect, I can say with time, the Lake will no longer remain fresh or deep as most of its bed is and or will be covered with huge layers of cement like hard silt. Pretty sure the government will have to spend a lot of money in de-silting Lake Victoria in future.
While in the water, I was able to discover that the aquatic plants in the lake are at the verge of being submerged by the silt thus a decrease in needed dissolved oxygen for photosynthesis. It was evident that the important components of aquatic habitat, which native aquatic species rely on for survival, are altered by siltation. These include the amount of light, the temperature, depth, and flow of water. The situation has been made worse by pollutants like fertilizers, pathogens, pesticides, and heavy metals. Soon Uganda will have to rely on imported fish as our own lake can no longer provide a safe haven for fish production and survival.
Truth be told, the National Environmental Management Authority, the agency responsible for supervising environmental activities has no capacity to stop silt from going into the lake as they are underfunded. All focus is on the physical pollutants like plastics, polythene bags and the water weed. No attention has been given to silt. Am sure NEMA is not aware of the massive silt deposits in the lake. So is there anything any one can do to protect the lake from silt, for now the answer is in the negative yet my observation shows it is a timing bomb about to explode.
With time, the volumes of water in Lake Victoria are going to reduce as their bed is now clogged with large volumes of silt. We all know the importance of Lake Victoria to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Egypt which now calls for the intervention of the International Community. If no action is taken now, lake Victoria will continue busting its banks as its base or water bed can longer hold large volumes of water especially during rainy seasons.
Seeing how much of Lake Victoria space has been encroached on by investor for constructions, am left wondering if the Ugandan Government is bothered about the plight of Lake Victoria. These “investor” have claimed several hectares of the lake by dumping soil into the lake in breach of set standards given for environment and Social Impact Assessment that are usually provided to guide these so called investors during construction.
I was also informed that the many organisations and local leaders have on several occasions petitioned Parliament to intervene in the rampant human activities on the banks of lake Victoria but nothing is done. Some commercial settlements have come into existence by dumping soil in a wetland where Lake Victoria would occasionally store is excess waters off the shores of Lake Victoria. Now that silt is fighting the survival of the lake from down and human activities are reducing the boundaries of the lake, it is a wakeup call to the Government.
I know for a fact that Lake Victoria used to be Africa’s largest and the world’s second largest fresh water lake but that is all in the past. The size of the lake has been compromised by the very powerful people who have more respect for money and not the environment. I also know for a fact that Lake Victoria pollution is not being done by Uganda alone but I think each country sharing Lake Victoria has a role to play. The 26,828-square-mile mass of the lake has since dwindled largely due to encroachment of the lake banks and siltation at the base of the Lake.
The mismanagement of Lake Victoria has far reaching consequences not only to the east African countries but those that depend on the River Nile for everything. A reduction of water levels in lake Victoria is an automatic reduction of the beauty and strength of river Nile, a home to several hydro power plants and water animals such as hippos and crocodiles. The Survival of Lake Victoria should be on our agenda come 2026 elections especially for those intending to contest for the Presidency. Whoever does not have a clear plan for safeguarding Lake Victoria should not be voted. The world should come up with sustainable solutions for Lake Victoria whose mismanagement could be the death of millions of people, birds, animals and aquatic life which depend on it for their survival.
Wadada Rogers is a commentator on political, legal and social issues. wadroger@yahoo.ca
