Farmers grab free land as L. Victoria shrinks

true  Lake Victoria is receding, leaving previous shorelines to be occupied by people for other land use. According to experts, this is an indicator that the lake is shrinking. The unfortunate development puts the livelihoods of those who depend on it at risk. Unless something is done urgently, the livelihood of about 30 million people remains threatened.

By Gerald Tenywa

Moses Mugabi, a resident of Mayuge district, is a happy man. He wears a smile, walking down the land left behind by the retreating Lake Victoria, about six years ago.

“It is not every day that Lake Victoria is in such a giving mood,” says Mugabi.

He notes that the lake moved about half-a-kilometre away from the edge of the area his garden previously covered.

In Mugabi’s village, many people own less than three acres of land. For Mugabi, who was growing crops on two acres six years ago, the lake’s recession came as a blessing in disguise. The father of 12 now grows sweet potatoes, tomatoes, yams and vegetables on his newfound land, covering about six acres.

And he is not the only one. About 200 kilometres away from Mugabi’s little paradise, Abbey Musoke, in Masaka, says the lake is becoming shallow.

He notes that he can walk into Lake Victoria for a about a kilometre, before the water reaches his waist, which was not the case many years ago.

If nothing is done, the end of Lake Victoria, one of the largest fresh water bodies in the world, shared by Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, may not be very far.

Land reclaimed from under water is a curse

However, not everybody is celebrating the recession of the lake’s shoreline.

Dr. Callist Tindimugaya, a commissioner in the water ministry’s Directorate of Water Development, says power generation has declined and fish catches have also reduced.

The lake is muddy as a result of soil erosion from the nearby hills that have lost trees and shrubs to people in search of firewood and farmland.

The wetlands separating the land from the lake have been enroached on, destroying the shield that used to protect the lake from silting.

Like other lakes such as Chad in Central Africa, Lake Victoria has been shrinking. It is also choked with algae and water hyacinth, which has led to a reduction in fish stocks.

According to Tindimugaya, the heaviest blow that has been delivered by the receding shoreline of the lake is on generation of hydro-electric power dams at Nalubaale and Kiira dams.

“The capacity of Nalubaale and Kira dams is 380MW, but we are producing only 110MW,” he says.

Less water, according to James Banabe, a commissioner in the energy ministry, means more load-shedding and low economic growth.

“We release water from Lake Victoria, depending on how much is available in the lake. The more the water, the more the hydro-electric power produced,” says Banabe.

Wetlands, fishing grounds affected

Previously, the lake was surrounded by a ring of wetlands that used to shield it from siltation.

With reduced water, the wetlands dried up and became prone to encroachment, releasing the nutrients that had been arrested in the wetlands for many years. This, according to the fisheries commissioner, Jackson Wadanya, has affected the fish breeding grounds.

Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which are released into the lake, are feeding water weeds like green algae and the hyacinth. This has increased water treatment costs and also hampered transport.

Transport and water supplies hampered

As a result of reduced water and massive silting of the lake, the inland port at Luzira may have to relocate in the coming years, according Paul Mafabi, the director in charge of environmental planning in the Ministry of Water and Environment.

“A lot of silt comes from Kampala city, through the Nakivubo Channel. Murchison Bay, where Nakivubo Channel enters the lake, is now clogged,” he said.

At Kisumu in western Kenya, which is built along the shores of Lake Victoria, the receding shores have hit the transport sector hard.

“Fishermen cannot easily dock and the ferries have relocated further into the lake,” says Chris Owalla, from the Community Initiative Action Group, a non-governmental organisation. Owalla says the shift has cost the economy lots of money.

He added: “The quality of water has declined. The water from the city and the farmland runs into the lake and the same water is pumped back to Kisumu. Although it is treated, it has a lot of chemicals,” Owalla says.

At Mwanza, a city in northern Tanzania, Damas Nderumaki of the Tanzania Coalition for Sustainable Development, is also complaining about the retreating shores of the lake.

“The boats can no longer access the landing facilities at Mwanza. The landing is very far and inconveniencing,” Nderumaki said.

He added: “The fish is also decreasing in the lake because of the pollution and the declining water levels.”

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Houses built near the shores of Lake Victoria at Miami Beach in Luzira, Kampala. As the lake recedes, human activity takes over.

Why declining water levels?

What is changing the lake is the massive destruction of the environment in its catchment, according to Callist Tindimugaya, a commissioner in the Directorate of Water Development .

While the lake is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the catchment area covers a large expanse of land in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

The devastating impact of climate change, coupled with environmental destruction, have conspired to deliver less water into the lake, especially in the dry season, according to Tindimugaya.

“Inflow into the lake has reduced because the catchment area no longer stores water,” says Tindimugaya.

He explains that because there is a lot of runoff when it rains, the shores have become shallower. The brown rivers, Kagera at the border of Uganda and Rwanda, Rwizi in western Uganda and Sio in western Kenya, are heavily silted.

The wetlands are also getting heavily silted, prompting invasion of weeds, which are changing the ecology of the wetlands.

“The rivers have been delivering more soil than water to the lake,” says Dick Lufafa, an environmental expert at the National Environment Management Authority.

Wetlands and forests that used to hold water for some time and release it slowly are disappearing. Without such ‘granaries’, water flows out as soon as it rains and dries out at the onset of the dry season.

New policy on water release

As the water levels dropped, Uganda released more water for hydro-electric power production at Nalubaale and Kira in 2004 and 2005, according to Callist Tindimugaya, a commissioner in the Directorate of Water Development.

But this was not sustainable. Uganda’s neighbours, Kenya and Tanzania became furious over the drop and accused Uganda for misusing the lake.

Tension among the countries sharing Lake Victoria has been diffused by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, under the East African Community. While climate change and environmental destruction had hit all the countries sharing the lake, Kenya and Tanzania accused Uganda of depleting it, according to Tindimugaya.

“A water release and abstraction (withdrawal) policy has been drafted,” says Eugene Muramira, the deputy executive secretary of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission at Kisumu.

“This policy regulates how much water is released for hydro-electric power and how much is withdrawn for irrigation or domestic use in the three countries.”

He added: “Any release of water or withdrawal should follow an Environment Impact Assessment and this will be coordinated by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission.”

Such a relationship between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania is inevitable because the bigger catchment of the lake lies in Tanzania, followed by Kenya. The lake is also an asset for development and the survival of many livelihoods in the three countries, according to Muramira.

At the moment, according to Tindimugaya, the threat from neighbouring countries is not worrying. But it is set to increase with Kenya’s large-scale irrigation scheme, which is going to rely on Lake Victoria as a source of water.

Kenya, which is more economically prosperous than her neighbours, has only 10% productive land. The rest is semi-arid.

By 2025, according to a recent State of Environment Report for Uganda, there will be reason to worry as a result of increasing demand for water from humans, livestock, wildlife and industries.

“Uganda is ranked among countries that must plan and secure more than twice the amount of water they used in 1998, in order to meet reasonable future demands,” stated the report.

Looming conflict due to water scarcity

According to Jane Nabunya, the country director of Sustainable Services at Scale, a non-governmental organisation, water stress is measured against the availability of 20 litres of water per person per day.

“With stress, there is rationing of water, especially for agriculture. As for scarcity, there is tension and trans-boundary conflict,” she says.

As the population grows and climate change bites, water scarcity is likely to ignite conflicts between communities and countries over food and energy production, according Nabunya.

“Countries have good policies on water, but they are not being implemented.”

Nabunya also pointed out that policy formulation and discussion is good, but the communities at the grassroots should be involved. One way of rolling this out, she suggested, is by teaching school children more about the lake and its basin.

Apart from managing competition for water, Uganda and her neighbours need to consider land use planning to increase productivity of land. In the coming years, according to Nabunya, growing crops and power generation will come at a big cost.

Even River Rwizi has not be spared

Many people who grew up around River Rwizi have fond memories of the lifeblood of western Uganda.

The river is of essence to thousands of people and their livestock.

Unfortunately, the beautiful cattle, a prized asset of Ankole, which also depend on the river, have turned to bite the hand that feeds them.

According to the National Environment Management Authority, River Rwizi’s water has turned brown and the levels have significantly dropped.

The drop in the water levels is blamed on poor methods of farming, which cause soil erosion and pollution.

Residents have asked the Government and environmentalists to put in place measures to protect the river before it becomes extinct.

River Rwizi, which flows into Lake Victoria, serves the people of Mbarara, Bushenyi, Ntungamo, Isingiro and Kiruhura districts.

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The gorge that used to carry large volumes of water on River Rwizi. The river has been reduced to a stream, which people can even leap over.