|
|
Uganda: Museveni's Dams a Threat to Lake Victoria
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
15 May 2008
Posted to the web 15 May 2008
Ernest Waititu
Nairobi
As the first rays of sunlight streak into Lake Victoria, Idi Otwoma and his two sons leave their village, pick up their nets and board their old wooden boat for the port of Kisumu.
The sales from his catch put bread on the table for his family of two wives, eight children and nine grandchildren.
But in the last few years, the seasoned fisherman has barely caught enough fish to feed his family. The catch is dwindling and this is becoming a tall order for Idi and his sons.
At Uhanya fishing village in Bondo, the fishermen are an angry lot. They complain that they are forced to go further into the lake due to declining fish stocks.
In doing this, they say, they also risk arrest by either Ugandan or Tanzanian authorities, especially when they enter their waters.
Mr George Omolo, the secretary-general of the Uhanya Fishers Group also says that the declining fish stock has coincided with the dropping water levels in the lake.
Asked whether they know the reason for the drop in water levels, many fishermen say they have heard about the construction of huge dams in Uganda, which might have played a role in reducing the water level in the lake.
It is a claim that Mr Frank Muramuzi, the director of the National Association of Professional Environmentalists in Kampala, Uganda, confirms.
Mr Muramuzi says that in 1999 Uganda added Kiira dam to the 1954 Owen Falls dam, now renamed Nalubaale dam, in pursuit of more hydro-electric power.
When Kiira dam was built, he says, it could not meet its expected power production of 200 megawatts. For this reason, Uganda had to pump more water from Lake Victoria into the dam to make it produce the amount of power demanded of it.
This explains the drastic decrease of the lake water around the year 2004, says Muramuzi.
The drop in water levels has changed the fortunes of the fishermen drastically, says Mr Otwoma.
"Before 2004, our catch was good, but I've seen the water recede. Even now the water continues to go down," he says as he gestures with his hand.
"Fish prefer staying in deep water. When the water level drops, we have to go to the deeper water. That is the only way we can get enough fish," he adds.
Mr Daniel Kull, a hydrologist with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, established that 55 per cent of the decline of the lake water can be attributed to the construction of dams at Jinja.
The rest, he says, is attributable to other causes, including climate change and excessive evaporation.
With the construction of Kiira dam, which Mr Muramuzi says had technical faults because it was built parallel to Owen Falls dam, Uganda had hoped to up its power production for export to neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The completion of Kiira dam saw the water drawn from the lake double since the outlet was parallel to the one leading to Owen Falls.
But in his quest to develop a regional hydro-electric power hub, President Yoweri Museveni will not stop at this.
President Museveni has now commissioned the construction of a third dam - Bujagali - with the help of the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank.
While the dam is further downstream from Kiira, its capacity is set to be bigger and it will therefore draw more water from the lake, critics warn.
Mr Muramuzi narrates the Kiira ordeal: "As the water level in the lake went down, breeding for the fish, which usually breed on the lake's banks, was affected."
Cooperation
With the decline in lake water levels attributed to Uganda and the frequent arrests of Kenyan fishermen by Ugandan authorities, Mr Omolo questions the relationship between the two countries as expressed in the East African Community. "If the co-operation in the EAC cannot be used to resolve these serious issues, then it is of no use," he says.
|
Engaging the Ugandan Government is a strategy that Mr Keefa Kawesa of EAC's Organisation for Management of Lake Victoria Resources (ECOVIC) also suggests. "This lake is shared by three countries. Why can't Kenya and Tanzania stop Museveni from draining the lake?" he asks.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
