LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Draining an area of 194,200 km

(Lake Victoria Basin

Commission 2007a), Lake Victoria Basin is one of

East Africa’s most prominent landmarks. It not only

provides the headwaters of the White Nile but is also

central to the development and regional integration

of the East Africa Community. The Lake itself is shallow

but in terms of surface area it is the second largest

freshwater lake in the world, after Lake Superior

in North America (Lake Victoria Basin Commission

2007a). Lake Victoria covers 68,800 km

(Lake Victoria

Basin Commission 2007b; World Agroforestry Centre

2006), with a 3,460 km shoreline and is bordered

by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda; with Burundi and

Rwanda also lying within the Lake Victoria Basin

(Lake Victoria Basin Commission 2007a). A number

of important rivers flow into Lake Victoria including

the River Mara, Kagera, Yala, Nyando, Bukora and

Katonga. TheWhite Nile is the only river flowing out

of the Lake (Lake Victoria Basin Commission 2007a).

The Kagera (Akagera) River, which drains themountains

of Burundi and Rwanda and is the furthest and most

remote headstream of the Nile River, is considered

as the source of the Nile (Africa Facts 2016).

Supporting a population of 40million (World Bank 2016),

the Lake Basin provides a variety of economic and

development opportunities, including fisheries, tourism

and transboundary conservation. However, these

opportunities are hindered by a number of threats that

include eutrophication, over-fishing, introduced

exotic species and the impacts of climate change.

LAKEVICTORIABASIN