Sh180b for L. Victoria development

Apr 14, 2009

THE World Bank has given a loan of $90m (about sh180b) to the three East African countries to finance the second phase of the management of Lake Victoria that supports more than 30 million people.

By Gerald Tenywa

THE World Bank has given a loan of $90m (about sh180b) to the three East African countries to finance the second phase of the management of Lake Victoria that supports more than 30 million people.

Maria Mutagamba, the Minister of Water and Environment, on Monday said Uganda would get $27.5m, Kenya $30m, while Tanzania would get $32.5m.

She said the money would improve the collaborative management of the transboundary natural resources of the Lake Victoria Basin, by building the capacity of institutions, harmonising policies and legislation.

This, Mutagamba pointed out, would be done to improve the cooperative management of the shared water and fisheries resources of the lake.

The intervention also aims at reducing pollution through the treatment of waste-water and encouraging restoration of degraded catchments.

This will improve the livelihoods of communities that depend on the natural resources of Lake Victoria, the minister said.

Mutagamba said the second phase would use community driven approaches and sharing of information among member countries.

She said the first phase of the Lake Victoria Environment Management Programme, which ended in 2005, helped to fund studies that generated data on the lake, and what was happening to its catchment.

It had 10 components like management of wetlands, pollution and piloted protection of catchment forests, studies about the water hyacinth and on soil erosion control.

The programme coordinator of the Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, Richard Kimbowa, said: “This is better than the first phase because it is more engaging and is putting communities at the centre.”

“The only challenge so far is that access to information by the civil society concerning the project activities at the moment is not good,” he added.

Apart from siltation arising from rampant soil erosion, the lake is affected by pollution from industries that deposit waste.

Growing urban centres have also put similar waste management challenges on the lake.

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