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Water hyacinth back to L. Victoria
2007-04-11 08:37:42
By Guardian reporter
Water supplies to Mwanza city and the regional townships of Bukoba and Musoma will be threatened if measures to arrest water hyacinth that has resurfaced at a very alarming proportion are not taken.
The cause of the resurging water hyacinth is traced to sustained inputs via Kagera River.
Water hyacinth, family of bulbulous plant, with origins in the Mediterranean , east Iran and Turkistan areas, which menacingly spread in Lake Victoria in the nineties, causing problems to navigation and fishing activities; has once again resurfaced at an alarming occupancy rate of 0.8 hectares per day during dry season and 2.5 hectares per day during rainy season.
The Director of Water Resources in the Ministry of Water, Washington Mutayoba, said yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the region needs to address the problem of water balance in Lake Victoria, and the water hyacinth which has resurged at a very alarming proportion.
Mutayoba was addressing a two day workshop on, “Social Economic Development in the Nile Region: Energy Cluster”, in the city, attended by participants from Tanzania., Egypt, Rwanda, and Kenya.
He drew the participants’ attention to the phenomenal impact on cities and townships in the region resulting from resurgence of water hyacinth, and the falling level of Lake Victoria which recorded its lowest level at 2.5m last October.
“The impact is phenomenal for Tanzania, for example, because water supplies for Mwanza City and regional townships of Bukoba and Musoma will require being relocated further and deeper into the Lake.
This reduces the amount of water being pumped out and increases the cost of electricity,” he said.
The water hyacinth is impacting negatively on shipping through reduction of tonnage for the ships plying in the Lake because of decreased depths at docking bays or ports; and on fisheries through obstruction of landing sites, reduction of oxygen in the lake and obstruction of fish breeding sites.
A number of measures, are however, in place to arrest the situation including commissioning of the Transboundary Diagnostic Assessment Study (TDA), which has been undertaken and its inputs provided to Nile basin Strategic Action Programme (SAP).
A second phase of Lake Victoria Environmental Project (LVEMP II) is also in place to address the menace
The sectoral council of Ministers of East Africa Community dealing with Lake Victoria early this month endorsed the regional transboundary diagnostic study and the Strategic Action Plan in their meeting in Kisumu.
The ministers directed their permanent secretaries to carry out field assessment and report by mid May on the extent of the impact as well as on the level of the Lake.
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