By Tia Goldenberg Dec 4, 2007, 10:05 GMT
Kisumu, Kenya - 'Lake Victoria is doomed,' lake specialist Eric Odada says with certainty regarding the future of the world's second largest body of water.
Kisumu, Kenya - 'Lake Victoria is doomed,' lake specialist Eric Odada says with certainty regarding the future of the world's second largest body of water. EPA/JON HRUSA
And on closer inspection, the dire prediction seems like it might be right.
Rows of filthy cars and trucks rest in the murky water, as boys scramble to get them clean, splashing soapy liquid that forms a creamy film above the surface - just one scene from the lake shore any environmentalist would baulk at.
Behind the cars is a vast carpet of water hyacinth, a plant that thrives in polluted water and covers every inch of this bay on the shores of Kisumu, Kenya's third city, stifling already dwindling fish stocks.
As environment ministers from 190 countries meet in Bali, Indonesia to thrash out a new emissions reduction plan, experts and some of the 33 million people who reside by or near the lake say urgent action is needed to prevent Lake Victoria from shrivelling up completely.
Odada, who sits on a United Nations advisory board and hails from a village by the basin, said Lake Victoria has dried up three times in its history, but the risk of it happening again is due mostly to human-induced environmental effects, climate change being only one of them.
Deforestation from villages around the lake or from the dozens of rivers that pour into it has caused silt and sediment to flow in, raising the water level and thus increasing the speed of evaporation. The water level has reduced from 120 metres to 40 in less than a century.
Ultimately, Africa's largest lake could dry up entirely, killing all fish species in it.
'If things continue this way, millions of people who depend directly or indirectly on the lake will lose their means to survive,' said Geoffrey Obure, 34, who has been fishing on Lake Victoria for the last 15 years.
Obure said he has noticed dramatic changes in the lake since he began fishing.
His daily catch, for one, is more than disappointing and on a bad month, he can make as little as eight dollars.
Odada said Lake Victoria was once home to 55 different fish species but now contains no more than 20. This is partly because of climate change which has warmed the water, making food for fish less available.
It's also due to the erroneous introduction in the 1950s of the Nile Perch, a carnivorous fish that has devoured many other species.
But Obure attributes the lack of fish and his puny income to pollution in the massive body of water.
'Fish cannot survive when the water is dirty.'
Lake Victoria draws some 80 per cent of its volume from rainfall. But industrial activities in northern Africa have brought phosphorus-filled precipitation south into the lake, filling it with contaminated water.
This, in turn, has caused the hated water hyacinth to bloom and blanket some parts of the lake, sucking in oxygen and depriving fish that of course rely on air to survive.
'The fish have disappeared because of the hyacinth,' said Helen Achieng, who sells fried fillets by the road a few kilometres from the lake shore. 'Now fish has become more expensive,' said the 21-year-old, flanked by her four children.
Obure said his community in Dunga village, some six kilometres from Kisumu, are aware of the environmental problems affecting the lake and are trying as best they can to prevent them, especially given the impetus presented by the rise in fish prices.
The Dunga Beach Management Unit, a coalition of nearly 300 fishermen from the area, enforces a self-imposed community-wide ban on using soapy chemicals for washing in the lake.
'We are making noise, but it is not enough. We don't have the power to reverse this,' he said. 'Legislation lies with the government.'
The Lake Victoria Environmental Management Program (LVEMP) was created by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 1995 to improve sustainable use of the lake's natural resources, but is dubbed a failure by Odada.
'Each country was more concerned with their part of the lake and there was no coordinated effort,' he said.
While a second attempt at LVEMP is now underway, Odada said he has given up on the regional administrations and thinks the only solution to Lake Victoria's woes is to have the international community play a greater role in its management. He admits that is unlikely to happen.
But until someone takes responsibility, Odada's dire predictions may become reality.
And Obure, echoing Odada, knows that all too well.
'If we don't do something very urgently,' said Obure, inspecting a colleague's measly catch, 'people may be doomed.'
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