It’s time to save all our lakes, forests and rivers

The Nation’s exposé of the rot of Lake Victoria has triggered a chain reaction. On the political front, MPs from the Lake Victoria basin have written to Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko seeking a meeting to discuss the ecological degradation. Nearby universities are also making undertakings to tackle the environmental threats posed.

Such a flurry of activity to redress a potentially dangerous ecological disaster is quite telling. Organisations and individuals living around the lake are pretty aware of the conservational perils caused by sheer poisoning of this water mass. But they never bother to act. Either they are casualties of the mess or accomplices by dint of their silence in the face of an acute menace.

Evidence from a thoroughly conducted investigation reveals that the lake is dying from massive effluent emissions, pollution, encroachment on its waters and, generally, poor management. Economic activities around the lake, including manufacturing and agriculture, have combined to create a sludge that badly contaminates the second-largest fresh water lake, Africa’s largest.

Kisumu, the country’s third largest metropolis, sits on the shore of Lake Victoria, yet all its effluents spew into the lake. Its sewerage system is dysfunctional and cannot cope with the population that has grown astronomically in the past decade. Worse, even the Kisumu water and sewerage company, which is charged with managing the water mass, pushes toxic mess into it.

On paper, the MPs have done the right thing to seek out CS Tobiko to confront the menace. But it is hypocritical and too late. They cannot convince anyone that they don’t know the lake is dying. The pervasive water hyacinth that has marooned the lake since the early 1990s is a measure of pollution of the lake. Declining fish stocks and species all point to a lake on its deathbed. Therefore, all these politicians and even experts feigning ignorance and now running all over are merely putting up a show.

Lake Victoria’s toxicity is not an isolated case. Last year, the Nation wrote how Nairobi River and its subsidiaries were degraded through pollution and human activities. Taken together, Kenya is a living ecological catastrophe.

We are asking for quick, coordinated and properly thought-through mitigation plan to the lake. And that applies to all natural resources that are fast disappearing. Mr Tobiko must lead the process of not only reclaiming the lake, but all the others, as well as rivers and forests. The continued depredations of the lake and its environs, as well as forests and rivers, must end.