Some 1000 years ago, Lake Victoria dried up. That is according to Geologists.
With increasing human activities and related polution, this Africa’s largest water body may face same demise in near future.
No wonder efforts to protect the world’s largest tropical lake are being put in place.
The East African Community and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed on the use of funds committed by Germany two years ago, to protect Africa’s largest freshwater body; Lake Victoria.
The initiative involves mitigation and adaptation of negative climate change effects within and around the Lake Victoria Basin.
Now, the ‘Integrated Water Resource Management in the Lake Victoria Basin,’ has just received additional funding to the tune of 20 Million Euros, financed through the German state-owned investment and development bank (KfW).
The initiative aims at improving water quality and availability through the sustainable management of the Lake Victoria Basin by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
Moreover, it will directly contribute to the improvement of water quality of the Lake Victoria by the implementation of High Priority Investments in the Partner States in the basin.
It includes reducing the disposal of untreated wastewater into Lake Victoria and its tributary rivers.
Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater body in the world.
It is considered one of the most important shared natural resources of the East African Community, which has declared the lake and surrounding basin a regional economic growth zone.
The supporting Lake Victoria Basin Commission project is implemented by GIZ together with the Arusha based, East African Community Secretariat and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
This initiative has been topped up by 2.5 million Euros It will enable the Lake Victoria Basin Commission to further develop regulatory frameworks on water management.
East African residents stand to benefit from the sustainable use of water resources in water-scarce areas, sustainable economic development and the conservation of nature.
Shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Lake Victoria covers a surface area of nearly 60,000 square kilometers.
Victoria is the largest Lake on the continent as well as being the largest tropical lake in the world.
It is also the world’s second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America.
More than 30 million people in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda depend on Lake Victoria, its basin or the various Islands on it for their sustenance.
Fishing is a major economic activity of the people who reside along the shores of the lake.
Tanzania also has two National Parks, Rubondo and Saa-Nane floating on Lake Victoria.