Kenya Calls For Urgent Action To Save Receding Lake Victoria

WATER WORLD

About three percent of the lake's normal volume has been lost in just three years.

by Staff Writers
Nairobi (AFP) June 11, 2007
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday called for urgent action to save Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh water lake which is facing decline in water levels due to human activities. The lake, which provides livelihoods for some 30 million people in the shoreline countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, has suffered a dramatic fall in water levels since 2003.

"Lake Victoria is today seriously threatened due to receding water levels, soil and waste pollution, over-fishing and a growing decline in the health of its ecosystems," Kibaki said in the lakeside Kenyan city of Kisumu.

"It is imperative that we act urgently and decisively to halt further decline of the lake and the surrounding environment," he added while lanching a three-nation Lake Victoria Basin Commission.

Alarmed by the falling water levels, US green group International Rivers Network warned in a report last year that water levels had plummeted 1.2 metres (3.9 feet), bringing the lake to its lowest point since 1951.

The drop has stranded ferries and fishing vessels and caused water shortages for shoreline towns and farmers.

About three percent of the lake's normal volume has been lost in just three years, it said.

The report accused impoverished Uganda of secretly draining water from Lake Victoria to help maintain power for its electricity grid. Kampala has pledged to cut its water usage.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Email This Article

WATER WORLD

Understanding What Causes Rain

Delft, Holland (SPX) Jun 11, 2007
Weather models are not good at predicting rain. Particularly in hilly terrain, this can lead to great damage arising from late warnings of floods, or even none at all. From June 1 to September 1, 2007 Delft University of Technology is participating in a major international experiment in Germany's Black Forest, to learn more about what causes rain. Aircraft and an airship are to be used alongside ground-based observatories. Satellites will be used to gather the large-scale information.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Locals Block Work At Indonesian Mud Volcano Steel Dam Plan To Plug Indonesian Mud Volcano Chinese Space Agency Joins The International Charter Space And Major Disasters LSU And Los Alamos Team Up To Improve Evacuation Plans	CLIMATE SCIENCE Push-Button Climate Modeling Now Available Climate Groups Cool On G8 Deal But US Turnabout Hailed Major Developing Nations Lukewarm On G8 Climate Goals US Torpedoes German Hopes For Binding G8 Climate Deal
EARTH OBSERVATION Kalam Calls For Development Of Satellite Systems For Entire Humanity Boeing Launches Italian Earth Observation Satellite Envisat Captures First Image Of Sargassum From Space US Experts Predict Nine Atlantic Hurricanes This Season	ENERGY TECH Green Coffins Go Upmarket At British Funeral Parlors Researchers Examine Carbon Capture And Storage To Combat Global Warming Tennessee Residents Favor Expanded Wind Energy New Green Pyre To Cool Planet While Burning The Dead Of India
EPIDEMICS Bono And Geldof blast G8 AIDS Pledge Farce US Firm To Trial Bird Flu Vaccine In Indonesia And Hong Kong Avian Influenza Survivor Antibodies Effective At Neutralising H5N1 Strain System To Pinpoint Airline Passengers Who Contaminate Cabins	FLORA AND FAUNA New Collaborative Research Reveals Chimpanzees Can Sustain Multiple-Tradition Cultures Threats To Wild Tigers Growing Komodo Dragon Mauls Boy To Death In Indonesia Agent Slows Aging In Mice
FROTH AND BUBBLE US Loses Landmark Supreme Court Environmental Case Big Blue Goes Big Green In India Hong Kong Red Tide Spreads Sediment Dredging Has Fallen Short Of Achieving Cleanup Goals At Many Contaminated Sites	ABOUT US Upright Walking May Have Begun In The Trees Amazon Tribesman Takes Rainforest Message To Japan Color Vision Drove Primates To Develop Red Skin And Hair Northrop Grumman Dedicates Habitat For Humanity House

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement