Sunday 4 April 2010

Lake Victoria battles man made pollution


From The Guardian on Sunday, Dar es Salaam
By Lucas Liganga

Despite of its great potential not only as a source of viable fishery but also as a source of freshwater, transport and trade routes, tourism and sport, Lake Victoria is heavily polluted reducing its fish stocks, among other environmental disasters.

With a 3,440 kilometre shoreline and a catchment of 193,000 square kilometers that spreads to Rwanda and Burundi, Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake with an area of 68,800 square kilometers, is shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Having over 30 million people living in its catchment, Lake Victoria is the epitome of East African co-operation as all the riparian communities in the five countries share something or other of the resources of the lake.

John Okedi, a fisheries consultant based in the Ugandan capital Kampala, says Lake Victoria is reputed as nature’s living evolutionary laboratory and as the cradle for explosive fish species radiation particularly the cichlid family.

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