UNU Update: UNU/INWEH to help monitor water quality in Lake Victoria

UNU/INWEH
to help
monitor water
quality in
Lake Victoria

UNU/INWEH has reached agreement with Ugandan authorities to establish a water quality monitoring programme in that country's sector of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater resource.

During the 14-month project, UNU / INWEH, in partnership with the National Water Research Institute of Canada, will provide essential scientific equipment, establish operating protocols and procedures, and conduct on-the-job training of Ugandan field staff to sustain a long-term programme, managed and funded locally.

The programme will involve measurements of meteorology, lake physics, water quality and suspended sediments. Field training for Ugandan staff will include deployment, recovery and refurbishment of field equipment and electronic data downloading, servicing and troubleshooting.

Employing funds from the Global Environment Facility, the initiative is a collaborative effort with the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project, created to help address Lake Victoria's environmental deterioration. The lake has experienced extreme eutrophication, resulting in large, frequent algal blooms, oxygen problems, fish kills and infestations of water hyacinth. These changes seriously threaten the freshwater fishery (the world’s largest) and other agricultural, domestic and industrial uses of the lake.

For more information, contact UNU/INWEH.