FJA 2020 Shortlist

Category: Excellence in Environmental Journalism

Ezaruku Draku Franklin (Uganda)

Pollution Takes Toll on Lake Victoria

Daily Monitor (print and online)

February 17, 2020

Part 1. For three months, Nation Media Group and scientists from University of Nairobi combed different parts of the lake from Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. In Part One of the series, their findings indicate that heavy metals, pesticide and faecal matter threaten the lake, writes Franklin Draku.

As you sit at home or in a hotel, drinking that glass of water, you could be putting your life at risk since some of it, whose source is Lake Victoria, may be contaminated.

For more than three months, a combined team of NMG journalists from Uganda and Kenya, accompanied by scientists from University of Nairobi, combed different parts of the lake right from the border with Tanzania down at Rakai where Kagera River pours it dirty waters into the lake, to Kenya where the lake faces stark reality of rotting from the deep. A total of 52 samples were picked from 28 spots across the two countries.

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You Poisoned L. Victoria, Now Pay the Price

Daily Monitor  (print and online)

February 18, 2020

Treatment. In the second part of our series on the lake pollution, we look at whether the water is safe for human consumption and the cost of making the water body cleaner

KAMPALA. Lake Victoria is rotting from the depths and unless a drastic step is taken to save it, its water will continue to remain unsafe for human consumption.

On a daily basis, dirty water coupled with a stench from Kampala town snakes its way through Kansanga and ends up in Lake Victoria at Ggaba. In the northern part of the city, Nakivubo channel also pours the dirt at Luzira.

At Ggaba, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) runs three water treatment plants, Ggaba 1, 2 and 3, pumping about 150 million litres of water daily to supply the greater Kampala Metropolitan area.

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Lake Victoria Pollution: Act Now or Never, Experts Urge Government

Daily Monitor (print version)

February 19, 2020

Concern. The warning comes aft er a research commissioned by Nation Media Group found out that the lake is heavily polluted.

Government’s laxity in conserving wetlands is the cause of mess on Lake Victoria and its pollution, environmentalists have said.

The warning comes after a research commissioned by Nation Media Group (NMG) found out that the lake is heavily polluted.

Several wetlands around Lake Victoria have disappeared over several years amid rising population and demand for industrialisation. Many industries and settlements have sprung up in the wetlands, destroying the ecosystem that used to filter the waste from the city before the water enters the lake.

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