Saving Lake Victoria requires urgent and collective effort

It is predicted that by the year 2050(30 years from now) Fresh Water will be such a scarce resource that people will have to fight for it. People will not fight for oil and gas because most of the countries which may start a war will most likely have enough of that but will not have enough of fresh water. Three Eastern Africa lakes that is Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi holds 30% of the fresh water the world. I took time to watch the three-part investigative series on the Toxic Flow: Rotting From the Deep aired by NTV Kenya and those who did the same will agree with me that there is an urgent need to restore the lake to make it sustainable for the community around the lake basin who depend on the lake for daily livelihood.

Today, Lake Victoria which was once a source of purity and livelihood for the communities who inhabit the lake basin region is now a receptacle of filth and its water and even the fish is no longer safe for human consumption due to the presence of heavy metals such as mercury, lead, copper and other dangerous pesticides exposing the country and the communities around to serious health problems thanks to the human activities which has led to heavy pollution endangering the lives of both human and aquatic life.

The degraded quality of water of the lake’s water has made it much harder for some species of fish to breed and the fishermen admitted that they have to travel deep inside the lake some as far as a distance covered in three hours to cast their nets if they have to get fish contrary to some years back when they would cast their nets closer to the shore as the water was pure and made it easier for fish to survive and breed. The pollution has drastically reduced the number of fish in the lake and in turn denied fishermen money in their pockets due to reduced catch. The dirty waters and the saline nature of the lake has also led to the extinction of many species of fish which were there in plenty pointing to how series the problem is.

According to Kenya Maritime and Fisheries Research Institute, the health of the lake is deteriorating and in early 2000 there was about 150-200,000 tons of fish catch but there has been a decline of about 28% which has reduced the catch to about 115,000 tons as a result of continuous pollution of the lake contributed by human activities. Industrial waste from the industries along the lake, untreated sewage and widespread practice of open defecation has and continues to contaminate the lake’s water

There are industries including East African Breweries Limited, Equator Bottlers, Kibos Sugar and the county government of Kisumu owned Kisumu Water And Sewerage Company Ltd (KIWASCO) have been flagged for the routinely failing to meet the standards for treating their wastes before dumping it to the sewer line while they have a responsibility of ensuring that the waste they release should meet the standards set by the National Environmental Management Authority(NEMA). Based on the investigative piece, it is clear that human interference and activities contribute to close to eight percent of the pollution witnessed. Environmental stress which is as a result of overfishing, untreated liquid wastes that enter the lake, open defecation among other have contributed to the deteriorating state of the lake.

It is important that the communities, the governments both county and national and other regional and international bodies come together to identify both the short and the long term solutions to the serious problem has and if the pollution continues we will have no safe water to use in the next few years. The communities around the lake must protect the rivers that feed its water into the lake by ensuring that their activities such as use of dangerous pesticides, use of dangerous chemicals in mining as well as open defecation does not end up into the rivers. The government through NEMA must tighten its enforcement to ensure that the industries meet the standard by only releasing wastes which have been treated and they should revoke the licenses of those industries which do not meet the laid down standards. The Kenya Bureau of Standards(KEBS) should also test the fish coming from China due to the revelation that the fish is contaminated with heavy metals beyond the allowable limits. On the other hand, the country governments should come up with behavior change campaigns to sensitise the communities on responsible use of the lake and clean up initiatives to ensure that the lake does not deteriorate further. The media has done a good job by highlighting the problem facing the lake and the population around the lake basin, but more needs to be done by both the mainstream and the local language station in educating and creating awareness on the dangers of the continuous pollution.

There is hope that natural resources such as the lake can regenerate but with the serious human interferences highlighted in the story, there is urgent need for education and strategies to save the lake, the aquatic life and the population who depend on the lake for their livelihoods.