Earth Equity News

Lake Victoria Beset by Environmental Problems. By Sarah Stuteville, SFChron, June 25, 2008. "Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake at 26,560 square miles and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, is losing water at an alarming rate -- at least six feet in the past four years. As a result, the waterway may soon join the list of dying lakes, some ecologists say. The reasons are varied: rising temperatures, invasive species, hydroelectric dams, and about 30 million fishermen and dirt farmers from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who eke out a living from the lake and use it as their primary source of water... 'If it (receding water levels) continues at this rate, with a lot of dam construction taking place, climate change, clearing forests and wetlands, within 20, 25, 30 years, you'll have no lake,' said Frank Muramuzi [director of Uganda's National Association of Professional Environmentalists]."