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Great wildebeest migration, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Large-scale irrigation and industrial activities, such as
mining along the sprawling Mara Basin, have led to high
rates of water extraction. Increased forest clearance and
cultivation in the upper catchment of the Mau uplands
have progressively led to excessive sedimentation loads
and altered the hydrography of the Mara River – the
only source of drinking water for migratory wildlife
during the dry season in August and September in the
Serengeti-Mara ecosystem (UNEP 2009).
Seasonal floods and droughts have become more
frequent and extreme, making the Mara River water
flow more unpredictable over the past few years. The
Mara River is not large enough to cope with the ever-
increasing activities, which will severely degrade the
riverine ecosystem and eventually disrupt the ecosystem
services that support the local population, livestock
and wildlife. This, in turn, will impact on the overall
Basin economy. In the worst-case scenario, it could
lead to the collapse of the wildebeest migration that
sustains the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, with devastating
consequences for the tourism industry (UNEP 2009).
Blue wildebeest in the Serengeti