The Senate has launched a probe to identify entities and indirect contributors that discharge raw waste into Lake Victoria.
Nominated Senator Beatrice Ogolla, who is seeking a statement from the Committee on Land, Environment and Natural Resources wants the probe to outline types and treatment levels of waste being discharged to the lake.
“State the regulatory framework governing the disposal of waste by these entities into Lake Victoria considering the transnational nature of the lake,” she stated.
Lake Victoria, the planet's second-largest freshwater lake and the largest in Africa is in serious danger from pollution.
Because lakeside communities from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have practically no access to sewage infrastructure, a constant flow of sewage, fertilisers, garbage and plastic waste is suffocating what has long been the main provider of food and livelihoods.
Ogolla further wants the government to outline targeted interventions in the short and long term to curb pollution of the lake, furnishing the Senate with a compliance report of measures taken to protect the water body.
A recent study examining the lake's water quality and degradation by researchers from Texas Southern University in the US and Uganda’s Makerere University revealed that Lake Victoria has been heavily polluted with high traces of three dangerous minerals- lead, arsenic aluminum and phosphorus.
In July 2023, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) Fresh Water Research Director, Christopher Aura revealed that incessant contamination of the lake is denying the country revenues estimated to be more than Sh40 billion annually.
Aura noted that more than 60 per cent of fish production in Kenya and one per cent of captured fish globally comes from Lake Victoria with aquaculture and marine posting 14 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.