By Tony Ofungi
Published May 21, 2020
East Africa‘s Lake Victoria has flooded several beaches along its shores.
Callist Tindimugaya, a Commissioner in Uganda’s Ministry of Water, says the lake that is shared by Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, has been rising since October 2019 and that it hit the 1,134.38 metre mark in March 2020, smashing the previous record of 1,133.27 metres it set in May 1965. This is what led to flooding all around the lake that covers 68,000 square kilometres, making it Africa’s most expansive and only second to USA’s Lake Superior, in the world.
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“We have authorized the power-generating companies to spill up to 2,400 cubic metres per second,” Dr Tindimugaya says.
He says the release of 2,400 cubic metres of water at Owen Falls Dam and Jinja Dam is being done to prevent the lake from expanding beyond the protection zone, to keep the power dams safe and to prevent the water spill into parts of Kampala City.
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“There is more rain than was expected during May, and the releasing of water is going to create space for the increased inflows of water into the lake,” Tindimugaya says.
But this will lead to people being resettled elsewhere as spilling more water downstream the River Nile is going to increase the volume of water in Victoria Nile that lies between lakes Victoria and Kyoga and Lake Albert.
Tindimugaya says Lake Victoria is like a basin with only one outlet which is the River Nile that is shared by 11 countries.
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Lake Victoria is fed by 23 rivers which have wreaked wanton destruction with the recent rains from Kagera in Rwanda to river Nyamwamba in the Mt. Ruwenzori ranges. The river burst its banks, leading to the evacuation of Kilembe Hospital in the Kasese district.
In Entebbe, where the Entebbe International Airport is located, the lake is inching closer to the Kampala-Entebbe expressway. The rising waters have also displaced people from the landing sites, luxury hotels, and residences around Lake Victoria, including Lake Victoria Serena Golf Course, Country Lake Resort Garuga, Speke Resort Munyonyo, and the Marriot Protea Hotel, and a lowly Miami Beach located at Port Bell, Kampala, all constructed within the 200-metre protection zone of Lake Victoria.
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In Murchison Falls National Park at Paraa, the ferry crossing pier that connects the northern and southern sectors of the park has been submerged, making docking for the ferry impossible. The adjoining bridge is still under construction, but with no visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no pressure for authorities to find alternative options.
Atukwatse Abia, a professional guide with the Uganda Safari Guides Association (USAGA), says the biggest cause of this phenomenon is “the destruction of the catchment areas and general climate change [and] the destruction of wetlands and forests mainly which would retain the water and release it slowly to the lake. These are no more, and hence, water runs direct either from precipitation or inlets to the lake without anything holding them for some time.”
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She says “The continental winds are responsible for the increased rains in the region, and that’s why like in April, we didn’t see much rains, but the lake was filling up heavily.”
Further runoff from households and industries, coupled with the destruction of wetlands, have led to heavy silting and eutrophication of the lake displacing the waters.
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In April 2020, the Ugandan military started removing floating islands (also known as sudds) from Lake Victoria when they caused a nationwide power outage when they clogged the turbines at the hydroelectric power station in Jinja, briefly interrupting President Museveni’s broadcast to the nation on COVID-19. These islands, many covering the size of two football fields, had been heavily encroached on by human settlement and cultivation.
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Beatrice Anywar, the Minister of State for Environment, has since issued a weeklong ultimatum to all people who are illegally residing around water bodies to vacate these places or else have them forcefully evicted.
It is yet to be seen whether Anywar will implement the said evictions since President Museveni halted evictions of people on any land during the COVID-19 pandemic and also barred any courts from issuing eviction orders.
An eTurboNews article