Lake Victoria basin in Kenya: A potential case study for the Joint WHO/UNEP/IAEA project on assessment and management of health and environmental risks

Concern is arising about pollution in Lake Victoria, the largest of the East African Great Lakes. Lake Victoria is at a cross-roads: it could become an ecological disaster, or it can provide a model of enlightened environmental planning. A comprehensive environmental assessment wiht a consequent action plan will be required to locate, monitor, control and, ultimately, diminish the sources of contamination to prevent further environmental degradation in the Lake Victoria Basin. While such a project must ultimately explore basin-wide problems of industrial development, deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, over-cropping, overgrazing, and population growth, a more limited project to begin some integrated assessment which focuses on industrial effluents from existing and future industrial activities in the river basins, and on pollutants from agricultural run-off within Kenya is proposed. The region is a limited, well-defined area hydrologically. Limiting the case study to the area within Kenya results in a politically unified region also. The region is impacted by industrial effluents superimposed on the problems of rapid population growth, fishing pressure, and expansion of farming into marginal lands with resulting deforestation and agricultural run-off. There are several, currently unrelated, projects on environmental risk assessment and management in the region which could be incorporated into the case study. A Government of Kenya agency with responsibility for coordination of environmental risk assessment and management, the Lake Basin Development Authority, already exists and is seeking outside assistance. It is far better to begin with a limited, practical first step which could eventually fold into a more comprehensive, basin-wide planning program. (author)