Shared waters facing greater pollution risk

 

Lake Victoria has in the past been invaded by thewater

hyacinth. Water bodies that are shared by two

countries or more take centrestage

this World Water Day

 

By John Kasozi

ENCROACHMENT on the transboundary water sources on River Nile and Lake Victoria is threatening the quality and continued access to clean and safe water. This is a concern water experts are grappling with as Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Water Day under the theme: Shared Water, Shared Opportunities; Transboundary Waters

About 98% of Uganda’s land lies in the Nile Basin. This is a biggest proportion as compared to any other Nile Basin country.
“As a result, this year’s theme of is relevant to Uganda’s pursuit to protect the water sources to achieve equitable share of Nile Basin waters,” says Joel Richard Okonga, the assistant commissioner, directorate of water resource management, ministry of water and environment. In 1992, the UN general assembly designated March 22 as World Water Day to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water to the world’s poor.

Paul Mafabi, the commissioner for wetlands management department, ministry of water and environment says infrastructure development along the shores of Lake Victoria is threatening the quality of water.

“The mushrooming industries and residential structures in Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe along the shores of Lake Victoria are responsible for the poor water quality. They have tampered with the catchment areas,” Mafabi says.

This is echoed by the Lake Victoria Basin Environment Outlook by UNEP, 2000. It says water quality deterioration has been a result of poor planning, maintenance and inadequate investment in municipal wastewater treatment systems. These have contributed to the increased untreated effluent discharge.

“Buildings and unsustainable agricultural practices have been done in prohibited areas. The national environmental statute (NES) stipulates that a developer has to keep a distance of 300metres from the shores of Lake Victoria and other big lakes, 200metres from the River Nile banks and 30metres from the small streams,” Mafabi explains.
He says this, unfortunately, is not adhered to.

The transboundary Lake Victoria is a final destination of the factory effluent, oil and grease spillage and sewage from the urban centres. It faces other environmental problems, including invasive species, water quality, fluctuating water levels, poorly planned urbanisation, outdated cultural practices, unsustainable agricultural practices and over-exploitation of fisheries resources.

Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest and the world’s second-largest, freshwater lake, which is shared between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It has a total catchment of about 250,000 km², of which 68,870 km² is the actual lake surface.

However in a 100km radius around Lake Victoria, the population is increasing at a higher rate than the continental average. This pattern of increasing population and decreasing water resources is a source of concern for East African countries bordering Lake Victoria, as well as those in the Nile River Basin.

Since 2001, there has been an upsurge of conflict over transboundary fishery of Lake Victoria. The recent upsurge is the Migingo Island between Uganda and Kenya and Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The conflicts arise among fishers and between fishers and law enforcement personal primarily because of reducing fish CPUE (catch per unit effort), the migratory nature of fish shoals across the country lake borders and privatisation of fishing grounds.

The environmental conflicts arise from ‘access to’, ‘use of’, and ‘use policy’ of resources and occur between communities, states, humans, animals and sectors. Such conflicts have led to the users to pay little attention to the transboundary waters. Water-level measurements on Lake Victoria at Jinja fluctuating widely. In 1961 and 1962, for example, heavy rains drove water levels up by an astounding two metres.

Since then, levels have been declining over time. In December 2005, water levels dropped to an all-time low of 10.89m.
According to Uganda Water and Sanitation Sector Performance Report 2007, the underlying force of change is explosive population growth on the lake’s basin, along with associated farming practices and urbanisation.

Four major rivers Sondu-Miriu, Kibos, Nyando and Kisat in western Kenya discharge an average of 231 m3 of waste water per second into the Gulf.

Untreated sewage and wastewater from surrounding towns and organic and inorganic nutrients washed down from cultivated areas flow first into these rivers, and then into the Winaw Gulf on western side of Lake Victoria.

When water hyacinth invaded Lake Victoria in the 1990s, Winam Gulf was one of the most severely affected regions as much as 17, 231 hectares of the surface were covered by the plant.

Water hyacinth thrives on the nutrients running into the lake from increased fertilizer applications on adjacent agricultural lands.
The plants disrupted transportation and fishing, clogged water intake pipes for municipal water, and created habitat for disease-causing mosquitoes and other insects.

In 2007, massive algae blooms appeared on the shorelines of Lake Victoria Bays of Kitubulu, Kigungu and Nakiwogo in Entebbe and Murchison in Kampala.

Algae blooms are a symptom of a lake reducing in size. The result is scarcity of clean water and water-borne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and certain intestinal parasites.

In 1959 Sudan and Egypt made an agreement allocating the entire average annual flow of the river Nile to be shared among themselves 18.5 and 55.5 billion cubic metres respectfully, but ignored the rights to water of the remaining eight Nile countries Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
To handle the hydro-political conflicts arising from the riparian states, the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) was formed in February, 1999. NBI looks at seeking to develop the river in a cooperative manner, share substantial socioeconomic benefits, and promote regional peace and security.

Africa’s 59 international transboundary river basins cover about 64% of the continent’s land area and contain 93% of its total surface water resources. They are also home to some 77% of the African population.

Worldwide, there are 263 transboundary river basins, which can be defined as river basins shared by two or more riparian states.
Approximately 60% of the world’s population depends on these international water systems.

Additional reporting by Arthur Baguma