The East African Community should move fast and combat the rampant environmental degradation levels if they are to conserve water levels of Lake Victoria.

Environmental degradation has been singled out as the major cause of the declining water levels of Africa’s largest fresh water lake, a trend that, if not reversed, will not only have implications on the region but the world at large.

The concern was raised in a meeting the United Nations-Habitat Executive Secretary, Dr. Anne Tibaijuka had with the ministers of Water Development and the Environment from the five EAC member states at the launch of the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative (LAWTSAN), earlier this week in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr. Tibaijuka told the five ministers from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi that the world body is concerned with the dwindling water levels and will move to assist the regional body reverse the trend as soon as possible, much as the countries depending on the worlds 3rd largest lake have a more important role to play in restoring the declining water levels.   

 "The Lake Victoria water is sourced from streams and rivers from the five EAC member states, and we are concerned about how we can conserve and preserve the water catchment areas, in order to assist you meet the Millennium Development Goals as far as water and sanitation is concerned,” remarked the UN official.

The United Nations through its agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have pledged to work hand in hand with the EAC and other donor countries to halt the falling water levels in L. Victoria.

Dr. Tibaijuka cited the Netherlands as one of the countries that have pledged to finance L. Victoria conservation plans, pledging a $5.6 million fund towards the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation project that began earlier this year.

The Ministers, Stanislas Kamanzi (Rwanda), Maria Mutagamba (Uganda), Prof. Mark Mwandosya (Tanzania) and Dr. Samuel Ndayaragije (Burundi) pledged their countries’ readiness to support the cause to conserve the Lake Basin on which 90% of the EAC population directly depend.

The Ugandan minister told the meeting that Uganda had entered an understanding with Egypt where the latter will donate an equivalent of Frw90 billion towards the conservation of the lake. Egypt is one of the countries that largely depend on the River Nile whose water mainly comes from L. Victoria.

The Ugandan minister revealed that the Ugandan Government has been monitoring the water levels on the lake by stationing engineers at Jinja, the source of the River Nile, to study the dynamics of the lake.

She revealed that the study had singled out the long drought that hit the region in the past three years as the major cause of the fall in water levels that led to the closure of one of the hydro-electric stations.

"The low levels of water in Lake Victoria were also a result of the recent drought in the region and it forced us to shut some of our hydro electricity power plants and import expensive equipment to generate power,” Mutagamba revealed.

Dr. Tibaijuka hailed the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative (LAWTSAN), saying it provides a balanced combination of capital investment in pro-poor infrastructure and the building of capacity of the service providers to sustain those investments.

LAWTSAN was put in place by UN-Habitat to integrate actions of the five EAC member states to meet the most immediate needs in water and sanitation, drainage, and waste management with actions in support of institutional reform and capacity building, at least by 2012.

The project, which will entail infrastructure rehabilitation and capacity building, is designed to assist towns in the Lake Victoria area meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on water and sanitation, which will see half of the people without access to water and sanitation facilities access them by 2012.

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