Lake Victoria Experience and Lessons Learned Brief Sixtus Kayombo*, Dar es Salaam University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
[email protected] Sven Erik Jorgensen, Royal Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark * Corresponding author 1. Introduction fl ushing time is 123 years. Because of its long retention time, pollutants entering the lake remain in it for a long time. Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by area (Figure 1), and has the world’s largest freshwater Domestic and industrial wastewater, solid wastes, sediments fi shery, largely based on the introduced of Nile perch, which from soil erosion in the catchment area, agricultural wastes supports an economically and socially important export fi shery and atmospheric deposition are the major nutrient sources for the riparian countries. The lake basin supports about 30 to the lake. Parts of Lake Victoria, especially the deeper million people and is the source of the Nile River. The threats areas, are now considered dead zones, unable to sustain life facing the lake include eutrophication, over-exploitation of due to oxygen defi ciency in the water. The threats facing the fi sheries, introduced exotic species, and climate change. The lake have caused considerable hardship for the populations population in the catchment is growing rapidly, with the lake dependent on it for their livelihoods, and also have reduced itself attracting people because of the economic opportunities the biodiversity of the lake’s fauna, most notably the it offers. The lake’s water residence time is 23 years, while its phytoplankton and fi sh.