UN Co-Organizes Campaign To Clean Up Pollution In Lake Victoria
New York, Jul 1 2005
The United Nations housing agency is co-sponsoring a major awareness campaign to clean up Lake Victoria as rapidly
growing urbanization along its shores threaten the world’s second largest body of fresh water with increasing pollution
and environmental degradation from waste and industrial effluents.
“The main objective of the project is to innovatively change attitudes and behaviour with regard to environmentally
unsound activities that continue to harm Lake Victoria,” UN-HABITAT said in a statement.
“By encouraging people to adopt a hands-on approach to environmental management, this activity will be beneficial to the
surrounding communities as it will inspire and support them to take simple, positive steps towards restoring and
protecting the environment, thus enabling them to take ownership over its conservation.”
Intended as an annual event to encourage environmental action at the local level, the initiative is being jointly
organized with the Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) and the East African Communities
Organization for Management of Lake Victoria Resources (ECOVIC).
It is estimated that roughly some 30 million people - one-third of the combined population of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
- derive their livelihood from Lake Victoria through subsistence fishing and agriculture. But this resource can only be
sustained if its rich and diverse eco-system is well managed.
The rapidly growing urban and peri-urban centres on the shores depend on it for their economic growth as well as a
source of clean water for domestic use by the surrounding communities. On the other hand, uncontrolled municipal and
industrial effluents from breweries, tanning, fish processing and agro-processing continue to pollute the lake,
threatening the very basis of the local and regional economy.
ENDS