4 July 2020 | New Scientist | 29Murky waters
Photographer Frédéric Noy
Agency Panos Pictures
FORAGING in the swamps of
Lake Victoria in East Africa, this
man makes a living by selling
old plastic bags to recyclers.
Wetland areas usually purify
the water in the lake and run-off
by filtering it. However, a growing
amount of pollution is disrupting
this process. For instance, blue
dye from these plastic bags will
eventually seep into the water.
This isn’t the only problem
besetting Lake Victoria, which is
more than 300 kilometres wide
and the largest by area in Africa.
Climate change is causing it to
steadily dry up, while cities
in the bordering nations of
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are
dumping untreated waste into its
waters. One million tonnes of fish
are harvested from the lake each
year. The pressure on its stocks is
being made worse due to poaching
and overfishing.
It is now down to governments
to devise plans to preserve Lake
Victoria while meeting the needs
of the more than 30 million people
whose livelihoods depend on
its resources.
“In the next 50 years, if
nothing radical is done, Lake
Victoria will be dead because of
what we are pouring into it,” says
Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, governor
of Kenya’s Kisumu county. ❚
Gege Li