Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria

Subject: Environment

Section : Places in news

Context: One of the largest lakes in the world, Lake Victoria, has been suffering from a variety of unsustainable human activities over the last five decades. Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment and National Environment Management Council (NEMC), Tanzania have jointly released a report on managing its water quality.

Findings of the report:

• Mwanza city as a hotspot, contributing a substantial pollution load in the form of industrial effluents, domestic sewage and dumping of solid waste.
• It also recognised two rivers, the Mirongo and the Nyashishi as the major water bodies carrying domestic and industrial pollution loads, respectively.
• The results showed substantial pollutant load in the rivers, which may be getting discharged in the lake.

About Lake Victoria:

• Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest freshwater lake by surface area.
• Its catchment area includes parts of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.
• Also referred to as “Darwin’s Dreampond”, the lake is known for its high levels of unique biodiversity.
• In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world’s ninth-largest continental lake and occupies a shallow depression in Africa.
• Threats:
  • IUCN report assessed the global extinction risk of 651 freshwater species, including fishes, molluscs, dragonflies, crabs, shrimps and aquatic plants native to the Lake Victoria Basin, in East Africa.
  • African Lungfish was declining in the lake basin largely due to overfishing, poor fishing practices and environmental degradation as wetlands were being converted to agricultural land.
  • The purple flowered Water Hyacinth was accidentally introduced to Lake Victoria from South America in the 1980s, and at its peak covered close to 10 per cent of the lake surface. It reduces the oxygen and nutrient availability in the water column, which negatively affects native biodiversity.
• Tanzania has announced that it will establish a Lake Victoria Fisheries Trust Fund (LVTF) to conserve biological diversity and ensure socio-economic welfare of communities that depend on the lake for their livelihood.