Kenya calls for urgent action to save receding Lake Victoria

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday called for urgent action to save Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh water lake which is facing decline in water levels due to human activities.

The lake, which provides livelihoods for some 30 million people in the shoreline countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, has suffered a dramatic fall in water levels since 2003.

"Lake Victoria is today seriously threatened due to receding water levels, soil and waste pollution, over-fishing and a growing decline in the health of its ecosystems," Kibaki said in the lakeside Kenyan city of Kisumu.

"It is imperative that we act urgently and decisively to halt further decline of the lake and the surrounding environment," he added while lanching a...