POLLUTED BY THE GUARDIANS

Water sampling investigation by InfoNile in partnership with scientists in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania unveils increasing contamination in Lake Victoria, a transboundary lake that sustains millions

An InfoNile Investigation

POLLUTED BY THE GUARDIANS

Water sampling investigation by InfoNile in partnership with scientists in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania unveils increasing contamination in Lake Victoria, a transboundary lake that sustains millions

A heavy downpour drenches Kasensero town council in Kyotera, a district in southwestern Uganda. With wild storms raging, murky waves from Lake Victoria — Africa’s largest freshwater body — briskly fold towards the Kasensero landing site.

Also known as Nalubaale in Uganda, Lake Victoria is shared by three East African countries: Kenya (6%), Tanzania (51%) and Uganda (43%). With a surface area of 68,800km, and a basin population of 40 million people, Lake Victoria is also the world’s second-largest freshwater body.

On the day the InfoNile team visited Kasensero, the after-storm waves not only shoved the boats laid by the waterfront but also conveyed large volumes of aquatic weeds, old clothing, plastic bottles, used bags and shoes, used fishing nets, alcohol sachets and single-use polythene bags, creating an alarming scene of refuse.

It’s such effluent that pollutes the lake and affects its water quality.

Waste Flowing From Upstream

River Kagera is one of the Lake Victoria tributaries. It stretches about 400 kilometers from its source in Burundi through Rwanda and Tanzania before draining into the lake via Uganda.

Along the way, this ecologically valuable river carries tons of plastic bottles, with some of the plastics bearing brandings of well-known mineral water and beverages including Coca-Cola, Jibu, Malagarasi, Rwenzori, Alpine, Bunena and Azam Malti coffee. The river also carries invasive aquatic weeds from Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as waste such as old clothing, used shoes, bags and used fishing nets from the local communities and industries. All this ends in the lake.

The unending inflow of such effluent threatens people’s health, ecosystems, and economies. It has become a big concern among stakeholders now advocating for diplomatic interventions to protect the river and the lake from pollution.

The river and the lake have outstanding value in East Africa, serving as a direct ecological and socioeconomic resource for more than 10 million people.

In Uganda’s Masaka region, some of the landing sites most affected by pollution include Kasensero, Kikene, Kyabasimba, Sango Bay and Lambu.

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Residents and leaders here say it’s quite a daunting task to collect and dispose of the effluent from the lake and Kagera River daily.

Joseph Kimera, the Kasensero Town Council councilor and a fish trader, said the lake is undergoing risky changes due to the increasing dumping of refuse from the four countries.

Pollution from Custodians

In the small market of Mswahili in Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria on the Tanzanian side, fishers and traders are busy day and night. On a sunny day close to this market, fishers were parking canoes constructed from plastic bottles.

Issa Mussa, a trader at this market, narrated that some fishermen use plastic bottles to make such canoes that are later abandoned in the lake when they are no longer usable.

Fishers do not only abandon plastic bottles in the lake but all sorts of waste that they generate, including leftovers of the food they eat while on the fishing trips, used clothing and fishing nets.

Communities living close to the lake – which should be the guardians of the lake- also dump their wastes there, including human waste that contaminates the lake used by more than 40 million people.

The contamination of Lake Victoria is a multi-country problem. Antonio Kalyango, the executive director of the Biodiversity Conservation Forum, said that a 2021 survey they conducted established that the contamination of the lake was the responsibility of countries in the lake basin.

Across Uganda’s eastern border with Kenya, the Kenya National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) – a government agency charged with coordinating environmental management, is raising red flags on Lake Victoria pollution.

Tom Togo, NEMA’s Kisumu County Director of Environment, said the lake faces pollution from as far as 50 kilometers away.

According to Togo, pollution from agricultural activities pollutes the lake at about 40 percent, followed by domestic waste at 30 percent.

“The sewer coverage in Kisumu town is below 20 percent. This means a lot of liquid waste which is not managed finds its way into the lake,” he said

According to Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company (KIWASCO), a government entity charged with providing water and sanitation services in Kisumu, the town currently has a sewer coverage of 18 percent and piped water at 83 percent.

Near Mwanza, the largest lakeside city on the Tanzanian side, pollution flows from mountainous communities that have no proper sewage systems, according to Ismael Kimirei, an aquatic ecologist with the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute.

In Kenya, Togo further noted that the lake’s pollution has been worsened by the degradation of wetlands – which would otherwise trap the waste before it gets to the lake.

“Dunga, Lwang’ni, and Kichinjio wetlands are not gazetted as protected areas,” he said, adding that this hinders efforts to protect these ecologically sensitive areas.

According to Togo, unmanaged waste, which finds its way into the lake, damages the ecosystem, making life unfavorable to aquatic species.

The Science: Is Lake Victoria Polluted?

To understand the extent of Lake Victoria’s pollution, InfoNile undertook a two-year-long investigation on the impacts of pollution on health and biodiversity along the lakeshores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Contributors included 20 journalists, data analysts, and a team of water quality scientists from the three countries.

The investigation, funded by the US-based JRS Biodiversity Foundation, involved collection and scientific analysis of water samples from the shores and the lake in each of the three countries.

Samples were collected in 2022 in Kenya and Uganda and in 2023 from Tanzania from the main drainage channels or rivers in major lakeside cities in each country. Samples were taken from Nakivubo Channel in Kampala, Uganda; Rivers Auji and Kisat in Kisumu, Kenya; and the Mirongo River in Mwanza, Tanzania.

These samples were collected at three different points: within the channel, where the channel drains into the lake, and one kilometer into the lake. Samples were collected thrice on three different days within the same week.

InfoNile measured various water quality parameters, including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, oil and grease, pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals (including lead, mercury and cadmium), fecal coliforms and electrical conductivity.

InfoNile compared the results to previous studies on water quality in Lake Victoria. Dr. David Were, a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Environmental Management at Makerere University in Uganda, Dr. Paul Orina of Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute in Kenya, and Dr. Ismael Kimirei of the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute also provided additional independent analysis of the sampling results.

In all three countries, positive results of E. coli and total coliforms indicated that the lake water is contaminated by bacteria from faeces that poses risks of waterborne diseases.

In Kenya and Uganda, chemical oxygen demand (COD) was above the recommended ranges, and in Tanzania, high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values were detected near the point where the Mirongo River drains into Lake Victoria.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of oxygen needed to oxidize the organic matter present in water.

“The higher the COD value, the more serious the water pollution. Coliforms and e-coli are bacteria found in feces. If the water sample has e-coli, it means the water has likely been contaminated by sewage or manure, which leads to waterborne diseases like typhoid and cholera,” the Kenya findings report explained.

According to a Kenya Health Information Systems (KHIS) report, incidences of water-borne diseases including cholera and salmonella in Kisumu county have generally declined from 2017-2021, but hepatitis increased again in 2020.

Overall, the findings in Kenya showed a level of chemicals that has been “progressively increasing” from earlier studies. Total nitrogen, total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, and dissolved oxygen values were outside recommended ranges, especially in the Kisat River.

Also, lead, which is highly toxic to the human body, was detected in all Tanzania sampling points and in several sampling points in Kenya around the Kisumu railway harbor near the informal settlements of Obunga and Nyalenda. In Kenya, oil and grease were also found to be above the recommended levels, which can interfere with biological life in surface waters and create unsightly films.

In Uganda, some parameters, such as biochemical oxygen demand, phosphorus, lead, and cadmium, appeared to be around the same values or had slightly improved from an earlier sampling in 2013.

Nitrogen, however, had slightly increased. Nitrogen, which stimulates the growth of algae that depletes oxygen, can come from agricultural fertilizers, wastewater, and animal waste. When oxygen depletes, aquatic life, such as fish, can die.

“Excessive input of nutrients in the lake motivates the growth of algae, causing algae blooms consuming a lot of oxygen in the water column, becoming less and less as blooms intensify,” said Dr. Were, adding that “this cuts off the oxygen, making the life not conducive to the fish. That is when we see the fish kills.”

Dr. Were explained that Uganda recorded massive fish kills in December 2020 and early 2021, mainly of Nile perch. This fish species demands a lot of oxygen, and any slight change or decline in oxygen in the water will stress the fish and potentially cause fish kills.

The government of Uganda, through the Acting Director for Fisheries Resource in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal, and Fisheries, Joyce Ikwaput Nyeko, announced at the time that the country had lost more than 100 tonnes of Nile perch and about USD $400,000 in revenue.

A Time Bomb

Despite the high pollution level, millions of people, especially in rural communities and urban centers close to the lake, continue to consume unfiltered and unsafe water from Lake Victoria.

According to Dr. David Were, pollution on Lake Victoria is mainly concentrated near urban areas with high intensities of pollutants.

Dr. Were said the pollution issue in Lake Victoria is a day-to-day challenge, mainly along the urban shores.

“The issue of pollution in the lake is growing day by day. It centers on traditional pollutants, especially nutrients. If you visit the lake at Murchison Bay, there is a green soup in the lake, which is usually an indicator of nutrient pollution, frequently that of nitrogen and phosphorus. When there is excessive input or discharge of the nutrients into the lake, they favor algae growth,” Dr. Were said.

InfoNile journalists visited different landing sites in the three countries that share Lake Victoria. In Uganda, they observed people washing clothes and vehicles and bathing in the lake. Scientists say washing or cleaning near the lake contributes to nutrient pollution, since detergent contains high phosphorus levels. Nitrogen and phosphorus can also come from agricultural fertilizers, wastewater, and animal waste from farms located near the lakeshores.

Dr. Were noted that nutrient pollutants make water unfit for its purpose, especially human consumption and aquatic life.

He explained that the fish have optimal conditions to survive in the water; these include an optimal temperature, pH (the measure of how acidic or basic water is), and requirements for oxygen. Introducing pollutants into the lake alters the oxygen level, making it difficult for the fish to survive.

Lake Victoria has long struggled with declining fish stocks, attributed to overfishing, the emergence of invasive plant species such as the water hyacinth, and the impacts of climate change. But increasingly, its pollution and the prevalence of microplastics are choking the lake.

“The most disturbing thing is point source pollution where resources are coming from the catchment areas and therefore changing the environment where the fish stays,” said Dr. Munyaho.

He explained that when these pollutants get into the water, they degrade slowly and break into smaller particles that remain in the water and are suspended in the water colloids or segments.

“These pollutants take decades to break down by physical mechanisms. Fish can also swallow them; through the food chain, the fish is consumed by humans,” he added.

A 2015 study by Great Lakes Research Journal, conducted in the Mwanza region of Tanzania on the southern shores of Lake Victoria, confirmed the presence of microplastics in 20 percent of locally fished Nile perch and Nile tilapia.

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At Uganda’s Ggaba landing site on the outskirts of Kampala City, Margaret Akankwasa, who has been selling fried fish for the past two decades, decried the decline in fish catches compared to when she started, even during peak fishing seasons.

Akankwasa and her fellow vendors know the pollution affecting the lake and its hazardous implications. Still, Akankwasa lamented that the community remains resistant to change. She believes enforcement is necessary, suggesting that others would take heed if people faced legal consequences for polluting the lake.

Ssempa Matovu Ssalongo shared a similar story. He has sold fresh fish at Ggaba for two decades, engaging with fishermen directly. Around five years ago, he said, fish numbers started declining. He emphasized that pollution has contributed to the dwindling fish populations.

“Plastics, including bottles and bags, are discarded into the lake, occupying the areas where fish normally hatch, near the shores. As these spots become inhospitable, fish abandon the hatching process, reducing their numbers,” he narrated.

A ‘Cocktail Waterbody'

Scientists argue that while traditional pollutants are still not well addressed, communities are now shifting from conventional pollutants to emerging contaminants, such as microplastics, pharmaceutical pollutants, and E-waste, which stems from electric equipment such as computers, TVs, fridges and mobile phones.

“We are having a lake with a cocktail of pollutants ranging from traditional pollutants, which we have not addressed, to emerging pollutants. When you look at the greater Kampala area, most homesteads are not connected to the central sewage system. Only six percent of homesteads are connected to the central sewage water treatment system. The rest of the homesteads dispose of their effluent directly into the lake through non-point sources. This is responsible for the high input of pollutants,” said Dr. Were.

Since these pollutants are new, they were not incorporated into the design of existing water treatment plants. Analysts say the current water treatment systems cannot treat some new kinds of waste, such as plastic pollutants in wastewater.

Most plastics are resistant to biodegradation due to their chemical structure. They remain intact in an environment where they are disposed of for long periods. Some can take between 100 to 1,000 years to break down.

A 2020 study by Robert Egesa, a scientist at the Uganda National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFIRRI), assessed the occurrence, abundance, distribution, and chemicals of microplastics within the size range of 0.3-4.9 millimetres in the surface water of northern lake Victoria.

“All the microplastics were secondary, derived from plastic materials utilized by the community,” said Dr. Winnie Nkalubo, who was part of the study team.

According to the study, the most significant proportion (36 percent) of microplastic counts were 1 millimeter in size, which poses a threat to water quality and fisheries of the lake.

Analysis of the chemical composition of microplastics indicated dominance by the low-density substances such as polymers, polyethylene, and polypropylene, across the microplastic types. These are produced by plastic products, some of which melt and others that are solid, including plastic bottles and bags.

Plastics are visible on most edges of rivers and lakes in eastern Africa, especially after heavy rainfall. When they finally sink to the bottom of water bodies, plastics become part of the sediments. From there, they never decompose but keep breaking into smaller particles that can be easily consumed by marine life and humans that depend on such water bodies.

In Uganda’s Masaka region, some plastics and polythene bags are collected, burnt or recycled by local communities. But Kimera, the Kasensero Town Council councilor, said many more continue to flow in from River Kagera, making the waste hard to control.

“We have registered a significant increase of at least 50 tons of solid waste discharged in the lake through river Kagera daily compared to less than 10 tons every day in the last six years when the Uganda-Egypt Aquatic Weed Control project was operational,” Kimera said.

This project was meant to fight mainly water hyacinth on the lake and other waterways, but it concluded operations six years ago.

“During the [Uganda-Egypt Aquatic Weed Control] project, the water from river Kagera and the lake used to be clean since the aquatic weed and other wastes would be trapped before entering Lake Victoria. The project workers would put a net across the river/channel to trap the waste, which excavators would pull out. So the water in the lake used to be clean, and the solid waste burden was less,” he said.

Besides river Kagera, Kimera said other plastics come from the mainland in Uganda due to poor solid water management in Kasensero town council in Kyotera district and other districts that neighbor the lake like Masaka and Kalangala.

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This is partly attributed to poor plastic waste disposal and low solid waste management capacity in the lake-neighboring communities.

Like commercial areas, rural and urban households are among the primary sources of plastic waste in East Africa. However, most local governments grappling with a lack of funds usually allocate little or no funds to garbage management. Ambrose Musasizi, the Kyotera District Communications Officer, said all local governments must feasibly budget for solid waste management.

Rose Nakyejjwe, the Masaka District Natural Resources Officer, opined that Lake Victoria is worst polluted by polythene bags, adding that “most of the polythene bags that contaminate the lake are locally produced in Uganda, because Rwanda and Tanzania banned their use.”

According to Nakyejjwe, poor government funding of districts worsens plastic waste management in Uganda.

“Managing plastic and polythene waste in Uganda is being spearheaded by non-governmental organizations because the natural resource department lacks enough financial resources,” she explained, adding that the poor waste management is mainly caused by the growing human population in trading centers and landing sites.

Kimera further appealed to the governments of Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania to develop a joint transborder initiative to fight plastics and chemical waste because the population is consistently growing along with manufacturing plastic products.

Water Pollution and the Cost of Domestic Piped Water in Uganda

In Uganda, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is the government agency mandated to supply safe piped water. Most of the water that provides Kampala City and the surrounding areas is abstracted and treated from the Ggaba landing site on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Engineer Andrew Muhwezi, the senior manager of production at NWSC Ggaba Water Treatment Plant, said it takes 24 hours of operation to treat water from the lake and make it suitable for human consumption. However, he noted that water treatment is becoming more costly due to pollution.

“We are having two abstraction points at Ggaba and Katosi. Today, the environment around Ggaba is largely built up and closer to Kampala City. From the inner Murchison Bay, we registered some pollution and had to shift our intake point in 2009 to about 500 meters off the shoreline,” he said.

He added that the water abstraction point shifted because it was becoming difficult to treat the water at the original point due to high levels of pollution by algae, plastics, heavy metals and others

“We have a very modern laboratory, and we can perform 100 percent of the tests we are supposed to perform. Also, as part of quality assurance, we take our tests to external labs to improve the validity of the results. Some of the results are not alarming like that of heavy metals, as many are below detection levels,” he narrated.

“We spend about USD $3.5 – 4.8 million USD (UGX 13-18 billion) on chemicals and close to USD $9.6 million (UGX 36 billion) on electricity annually. And, being that the pollution levels at the abstraction point vary, the cost of the Ggaba treatment plant is more expensive than that of the Katosi treatment plant, and if it weren’t for pollution, we would be incurring less costs,” Eng. Muhwezi asserted.

Domestic piped water coverage remains low in Uganda. A 2023 report by USAID indicated that only 19 percent of Uganda’s population can access safely managed, on-premises drinking water that is available when needed and free from contamination.

Various entities across the country supply piped water. Still, the biggest supplier is the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) – a government agency created in 1972 to supply clean water to Ugandans. By the end of 2021, NWSC had a total pipe network of 20,495 kilometers and produced 144.1 million cubic meters of water.

In the financial year 2020/21, NWSC spent 479 billion Uganda shillings (about USD $122 million) on infrastructure projects, with 65 percent of funds coming from development partners, 17 percent from the government of Uganda, and 18 percent from internally generated funds.

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Today, NWSC is undertaking more water projects. The Adjumani Water Supply and Sanitation Project is among the ongoing projects worth 59.8 billion Uganda shillings (USD $15.2 million) that is expected to be completed by September 2025.

Other water schemes are also being constructed by the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Water and Environment. These include the 170 billion Uganda shillings (USD $43.2 million) Karuma-Gulu water project.

Water treatment remains a challenge in Uganda. Reports indicate that water treatment costs are increasing due to water pollution. According to the Ministry of Water and Environment, degradation of wetlands has worsened water pollution and raised the price of water treatment.

Human-Wildlife Conflict

As urbanization has drawn humans closer and closer to the lake shores, the lake has become a dumping ground for waste. This affects not only human health, but also the overall health of the environment, home to many wild animals that have lived in and around the lake for thousands of years.

Humans encroaching closer and closer to the lakeshores brings them into close proximity with these wild animals. As pollution affects the animals’ homes and food supplies, they increasingly enter human settlements in search for food.

Shared spaces between humans and wildlife is causing a rise in conflicts between humans and wildlife, leading to the destruction of gardens and even the deaths of people.

Eighty-five-year-old Iddi Omar Yusuf spent about 57 years fishing in Lake Victoria on the Kenyan side. Although he earned his entire livelihood from the lake, he also lost his son and grandson in it.

His grandson, Ramadhan Omar, was attacked by a crocodile in 2014 while fishing near Usoma Beach. He was saved and fully recovered. But a year later, he was attacked by a hippo, which killed him. He was just 22 years old, leaving behind a wife and three children.

A year later, Mzee Omar’s son, Abubakar Iddi was attacked by a crocodile not far from the beach. His body was recovered with one limb missing. He was just 25 years old when he died: a husband and father of two.

In Kenya, any death, injury or damages made by wildlife is compensated by the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). But Mzee Omar’s family is still waiting for the compensation.

Every time Omar sits in his compound, facing the lake, the pain of losing his kins revisits, and reminds him of the troubled lake.

“These days hippos graze inside our compound, and it is very dangerous,” he said.
According to Christine Boit, the Senior Warden with Kenya Wildlife Services in charge of Kisumu and Siaya Counties, the damaged ecosystem, caused by human activities and climate change, is to blame for the increased cases of human-wildlife conflict.

“The past ten years has seen an increase in the water levels of Lake Victoria. With this, breeding and feeding areas for our wildlife are affected,” says Boit.
This, she says, forces animals such as hippos to find new grazing areas, which happen to be areas inhabited by people close to the shores of the lake. Snakes and crocodiles are also pushed to the shores.

She says cases of human-wildlife conflict in Kisumu and Homa Bay counties have increased from 10 in 2017 to 20 in 2021, according to their daily reports.
According to KWS records, crocodile attacks take the lead at 30 percent, followed by monkeys at 26 percent, hippos at 20 percent, and hyenas at eight percent.

The last available government report from 2015-2017 tracked more than 4,875 human-wildlife conflicts in Kenya. During the same time period, the government also paid out a total of 513 million Kenya shillings (USD $4.3 million) in compensation claims for such cases.

Our investigation along the lake’s shoreline in Kisumu, Siaya and Busia has established how lakeside developments are threatening the existence of aquatic life and worsening water pollution, destroying fish breeding grounds and increasing cases of human-wildlife conflict.

The parcels of land that once lay as feeding grounds for hippos have been taken over by palatial hotels and homes, while others have been fenced off.

Along the Kisumu-Dunga road for instance, the lakefront has turned into a tourism gold mine: About seven new hotels have been established along the stretch and in the nearby wetlands in the last two years.

The hotels include the iconic 100 million shillings Crystal Charlotte Beach Resort built in 2018 that was partly swept by floods and Dunga Melon Beachfront and Milimani Resort built in 2013 during the wake of the devolved government in Kenya.

Dunga Beach Hotel in Kisumu among other eateries built along the shoreline, threatening biodiversity

According to Michael Nyaguti, an environmental activist along the shores of Lake Victoria, “it is clear that the habitat and the grazing areas for these wildlife have been interfered with.”

When we caught up with him, Mr Nyaguti was preparing for an environmental forum, but he spared time to take us to the beach. As we moved closer to the water, there were heaps of sand from sand mining.

“Can you see this? Is this not what I was talking about?” he posed. “Crocodiles’ main food is meat. But when the fish is depleted and its habitat destroyed, including the wetlands which house some animals it feeds on, then it remains with human beings for food.”

Nyaguti has been leading a fierce battle against both small and big fish: the fishermen using illegal fishing nets, the firewood collectors cutting down plants at the lake shores, and “big” men and women grabbing land along the shores.

Through his MAGNAM Environmental Network community-based organization, Nyaguti has been advocating for conservation, as well as legal redress against those committing environmental crimes in the lake.

During our meeting, he was waiting for the determination of a court case in which he was seeking repossession of pieces of land allegedly grabbed by three former senior government officials.

In 2013 after his lawsuit, the Environment and Land Court at Kisumu mandated an investigation into three lakeside land parcels held by ex-Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma, former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero and former Environment Secretary Alice Kaudia.

In 2018, Kaudia and Ranguma were restricted from activities likely to cause environmental harm in the lake after it was found they had fenced off plots within the lake reserve. The case is still pending.

In another 2020 case, Nyaguti sued the Ports Authority Kisumu and the officer in charge of Railways and Ports Police Station, alleging that they had ordered the fisher folk to leave the Kichinjio BMU Landing Site to develop the Kisumu port without providing them an alternative fishing site or de-gazetting the wetland area.

In this case, the court found that the defendants had violated the fisher folk’s economic rights as laid out in the Kenyan Constitution.

“I am hated here,” Nyaguti says, adding that he was unceremoniously hounded out of office as the Beach Management Unit chair following his strong stand on conservation of the lake.

Substandard Fishing Nets and Sand Mining

Kenya’s Usenge Beach in Bondo sub-county, Siaya County, is a beehive of activities. The beach is among the 21 beaches under West and East Yimbo wards managed by Maurice Oyola, the in-charge of fisheries in the two wards.

Though fishing is among the main economic activities in the area, Oyola admitted that using illegal fishing methods and gear is still a challenge. He noted that these involve fishing in prohibited areas such as breeding zones, and using beach, boat, monofilament, gillnets less than five inches mesh size, and drift nets.

According to him, the use of monofilament nets is a widespread illegality in the area, adding that in a month, they confiscate up to 2,000 pieces. Oyola said fishermen prefer these nets because they are cheaper than the required nets. The nets enter the country through porous borders as they are not locally made.

“These nets are very dangerous. They are made of plastic, do not decompose, and catch very young fish. It is not sustainable nor environmentally friendly,” he explained, adding that pieces of these nets, even when they tear away from the main net, continue to do “ghost fishing” years later. In simpler terms, ghost fishing is when neglected fishing gear continues to trap and potentially kill fish.

One of the critical observations made by the 2018 Catch Assessment Survey Report in Lake Victoria is that illegal fishing gear is still rampant in Lake Victoria.

The Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) report further noted that gears are increasingly being modified to enhance efficiency. Gillnet usage with smaller mesh sizes is prevalent, especially within the Nyanza Gulf.

According to Dr. Kevin Obiero, the center director at KMFRI Sangoro Station, illegal fishing gears affect critical habitats where the breeding for fish happens. Tilapia, especially, are most affected as they make their nests at the bottom of the lake, and as the nets are being pulled they disturb their breeding sites. Some of these nets are also abandoned in the lake by the fishers, ending up as pollutants. Others are part of the pollution that comes from surface runoff, draining into the lake.

This is not just a Kenyan problem but a transboundary challenge affecting the entire East Africa region.

In 2022, a local Ugandan daily reported the conviction of 40 Kenyan fishermen, 12 Rwandans, and six Ugandans who were found with illegalities, including using prohibited fishing nets such as mosquito nets in the Ugandan part of Lake Victoria.

According to the Fisheries Management Plan III for Lake Victoria Fisheries (2016-2020) by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) Secretariat, one of the biggest challenges to the fisheries of the lake is illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (termed ‘IUU’), which comprises the use of unlawful gears.

The Regional frame survey (2014) showed that between 2012 and 2014, nearly all illegal gear increased: beach/boat seines increased by 30 percent, monofilaments by 29 percent, traps/baskets by 16.4 percent, and cast nets by seven percent.

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These gears mainly affect juvenile and brooder fish because they operate in breeding/nursery grounds.

Adding to the breeding problems caused by poor fishing gear is the sand mining tragedy on Lake Victoria.

According to Dr. Anthony Tabu Munyaho, the deputy executive director of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, sand mining is another cause of pollution on Lake Victoria, and it also contributes to fish scarcity, especially the Nile perch.

“Nile perch lays eggs in nests on the sand at the bottom of the water bodies. These are the breeding areas. When the sand is extracted, it goes with the nests and the eggs – tampering with the breeding process of fish,” he said.

In Uganda, sand mining is done in the lake and along the lake shores.

According to a 2020 study by the Institute for Security Studies, unregulated extraction, especially around Lake Victoria, destabilizes the area’s sensitive ecology.

“There is also evidence that it threatens local rural livelihoods, including fishing and agriculture,” the study reported.

Land use practices have contributed significantly to pollution of the lake basin, according to a 2021 study.

“Land use / land cover changes in a water basin play an important role in the environmental dynamics of the area. Various human activities like agricultural activities, increase in population (attributed to increase in urbanization and wastewater production), settlement construction, and deforestation significantly affect the water quality within that catchment,” the study concluded.

This study compared satellite images between 2000 and 2014 to analyze how land cover has changed in the lake region in Tanzania. It found that “the bare soil, urban settlements, and farmland increased by 38.9%, 8.4%, and 10.7% respectively from 2000 to 2014 on the Tanzanian side.”

Legislative instruments to control and regulate water pollution

Like all the lake-bordering countries, Uganda has set up several laws that seek to protect water sources and the environment – including controlling pollution. These include the Water Act, The National Environment Act 2019, and the Wetlands Policy, among others.

The government has also established and strengthened institutions such as the Ministry of Water and Environment (responsible for the development, managing, and regulating water and environment resources), the National Environmental Management Authority (responsible for coordinating, monitoring, controlling, and supervising environmental management), creation of an environmental police and other related structures at national and sub-national levels, for example, water and environment officers in local governments.

The constitution article 39 mandates the right to a clean and healthy environment and imposes an obligation to all Ugandans to create and protect this environment. Instruments such as the National Environment Statute 1995 and National Environment (Wetlands, Riverbanks and Lake Shores Management) Regulations, 2000 (MWLE 2000) further help to control diffuse pollution into water bodies.

In Uganda, it is illegal to construct permanent structures in buffer zones of lakes, rivers or wetlands. A buffer zone is a land with permanent vegetation preserved around a protected water body. In Uganda, a buffer strip is maintained at 200 meters from the low water mark, according to the National Environment Management Act.

Buffer zones serve many purposes, including removing pollutants from surface runoff before they flow into a water body. This subsequently protects water bodies from various forms of pollution.

But contrary to these laws, several buildings have been constructed along the shorelines of Lake Victoria in Uganda in areas such as Entebbe, Ggaba, Bugonga, and Manyago, which significantly contributes to the contamination of the lake’s water.

In Kenya, legislative instruments used to control and regulate water pollution include the Water Act Cap 372, Public Health Act Cap 242, Merchant Shipping Act Cap 389 and Factories Amendment Act 1990. For example, Section 94 of the Water Act Cap 372 prohibits people from throwing any rubbish, dirt, refuse, effluent, or trade waste into or near to any water resource.

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Similarly in Tanzania, the Environmental Management Act (EMA) provides a legal and institutional framework for sustainable management of the environment, including water resources.

Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are also all signatories to several international and regional environmental treaties, some of them with sections dedicated to control of pollution of water bodies. These include the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Bamako Convention on Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes within Africa.

Despite the existence of these laws and institutions, dumping of pollution into the lake and its tributary rivers continues in all three countries, majorly with impunity.

Restoring the Lake

It is fair to say all hope is not lost.

Countries in the Lake Victoria basin are undertaking different measures to curb pollution and depletion of the lake through both domestic and donor-funded activities.

In Uganda, Beatrice Anywar, the Minister of State for Environment, said through the National Environment Management Authority, the government of Uganda conducts regular sensitisation of communities on waste management .

“We also license waste handlers who collect waste, including plastics, to avoid pollution of land and water sources. As of November 2021, NEMA had licensed more than 160 waste handlers (companies) to collect and sort waste across the country,” she said.

Uganda’s Kalangala district – encompassing islands on Lake Victoria – is a beneficiary of a grant of 180,000,000 Uganda shillings (about USD $47,000) annually from the Netherlands government.

“This grant, though little, is utilized to sensitize communities on waste management,” explained Rajab Ssemakulla, the Kalangala district chairman.

Environmental experts such as Frank Muramuzi, Executive Director of the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) in Uganda, and the chairman of East African Communities for the management of Lake Victoria are calling for a regional approach to tackle plastic pollution in all the East Africa Community member countries, especially to produce policies and provide financial support to research and develop efficient alternatives geared towards safeguarding the environment.

For more than five years, NAPE has been advocating for proper plastic waste collection systems, recycling and promotion of alternatives to plastics, but with little success despite having engaged various stakeholders, including the communities, policymakers, and government, on matters of plastic pollution of the lake.

Muramuzi said, “Most consumer materials like cell phones, clothing, plastic bags, and household items all have components of plastics, which affect the environment once they are poorly discarded.”

In Kenya, joint operations led by the fisheries office and the Beach Management Units have seen some success in decreasing rates of illegal fishing gear.

“If there are cases, they exist in isolation,” says James Otuo, 36, a boat owner and fisherman in Maganga Island in Lake Victoria.

Similar sentiments are shared by some fishermen, including Pascal Otieno, 36, who observes that previously the use of illegal gears would affect their catch, but now the cases have reduced.

Dr. Christopher Aura, the Director of Fresh Water Systems Research at Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) said up to now, Lake Victoria has lacked a spatial plan that would guide sustainable exploitation of its resources.

But this is soon to change.

“We are currently leading a team of stakeholders that will be carrying out a spatial plan so that people understand the biodiversity, through demarcation of hotspots because the lake is multifunctional and should not be left to be operated on as a jungle,” he said.

Dr. Aura notes that the spatial planning will help with designating various parts of the lake for various activities, hence creating order and sustainable exploitation. Such designations could include having open fishing areas, fish breeding sites, hippo and crocodile breeding and feeding zones, transportation zones, among others.

In 2022, the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute in Uganda launched the Uganda Freshwater Biodiversity Portal, a data portal that tracks and maps occurrences of freshwater species in Uganda, including in the shared Lake Victoria.

This data portal, a one-stop center for all the data and information on freshwater biodiversity in Uganda, provides information about where each fish species is found, including those threatened with extinction, according to Laban Musinguzi, the portal editor.

In 2021, a three-year joint campaign dubbed ‘Cross-border Cooperation and Conservation (Triple C project)’ was launched to strengthen environment conservation, combat the rampant cross-border environmental crimes, and improve people’s livelihoods in Uganda and Tanzania. The project activities include training border communities in proper waste management, environment-friendly agriculture, and conservation.

The project, worth 900,000 euros (approximately 3.4 billion Uganda shillings), is spearheaded by Caritas MADDO, the Masaka Diocesan Development Organisation in Uganda, and funded by Italy and Australia under the European Region (EUREGIO).

Various NGOs and social enterprises have also emerged to clean and recycle waste from the lake. One of these is Eco Brixs, a social enterprise managing closed-loop recycling systems. It is located in Masaka City in central Uganda. It seeks to promote environmental protection by collecting and reusing plastics from communities and the lake.

The company collects, sorts, and recycles plastics by making plastic bricks and pavers, buttons, tables, chairs, desks, concrete poles, dog houses, face shields, baskets, basins, animal troughs and frames, to list a few.

Eco Brixs also sorts and bales the plastics and sells them to international recycling companies in China, India, and other countries.

Records at Eco Brixs by last year show the organization had set up 61 collection centers for plastic bottles, of which 25 were established in landing sites and shores of Lake Victoria.

At the Lambu landing site, for example, the organisation collects around 32-40 tons of plastic bottles per month, depending on the available funds. Dan Kayemba, a former employee of Eco Brixs, explained that the residents contribute the most significant portion of the plastics and polythenes at Lambu.

Eco Brixs also sorts and bales the plastics and sells them to international recycling companies in China, India, and other countries.

Records at Eco Brixs by last year show the organization had set up 61 collection centers for plastic bottles, of which 25 were established in landing sites and shores of Lake Victoria.

“In Kalangala town council, the collection center can collect at least 7 tons of plastic bottles every week,” Kayemba noted, adding that the tonnage could double or even triple with enough financial resources to facilitate regular collection activity. Eco Brixs conducts its operations in partnership with Masaka Diocese, Coca-Cola, and other partners – a partnership model that Kayemba says must be adopted throughout East Africa.

“All East African governments and the companies that make and pack beverages in plastic bottles should care to sponsor and be part of efforts to ensure that every plastic is collected from the lake, landing sites, and communities,” he added. Kayemba spoke to InfoNile before he departed from the organisation.

Despite the efforts, Kayemba said the amount of refuse the three countries of Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda contribute to Lake Victoria through river Kagyera is overwhelming.

“Collection of the plastic waste from the lake requires huge funds and joint efforts from all stakeholders. Otherwise, it may be too difficult to get rid of it as companies continue producing plastic bottled drinks,” he said.

Despite the efforts, Kayemba said the amount of refuse the three countries of Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda contribute to Lake Victoria through river Kagyera is overwhelming.