Source: The Nation ( Nairobi)
November 19, 2005
by John Oywa
Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP) is to get Sh12.2 billion from donors to implement the second phase of a project aimed at saving Africa's largest fresh-water mass.
The World Bank has pledged Sh2.9 billion for the project which benefits Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the European Union and the Norwegian Development Agency are to give Sh2.9 billion. Senior World Bank official Ladisy Chengula told journalists in Arusha, Tanzania, yesterday that the Global Environment Facility would donate Sh2.2 billion. But she said the five countries would be expected to also chip in with about Sh1 billion.
Dr Chengula was speaking at Arusha International Conference Centre during the close of a four-day scientific conference on success, or lack of it, and the challenges in the project's first phase, which ends next month. "We had raised the issue of the falling water levels and recommended that it be followed up. We really want to know the situation because the continued fall in the water levels will have serious economic implications to the people living around the lake," she said.
LVEMP I targeted Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania which share the lake. Some Sh5.8 billion has been spent on it since its launch eight years ago. Rwanda and Burundi have been included in the second phase after scientists complained that the degradation of their water catchment areas was also affecting the lake. Yesterday, Dr Chengula said that although Phase I had been successful, there were weaknesses in the collection, analysis and sharing of valuable information. The World Bank was not happy with the slow harmonisation of projects undertaken by the three countries, she said, and hoped that this would be addressed in the second phase.
The participants called for more community participation in the phase, arguing that this would boost the implementation. "We established that community participation was an after-thought, especially after the World Bank complained," they said. Kenya's Environment permanent secretary George Khroda challenged communities living around the lake to demand leadership positions in the project's implementation committees. "Just consulting the communities is an insult," he said.
The scientists also noted that the lake's water inflow had declined by 14.8 per cent in the past three years, sparking fears that rivers in the three East African countries could be drying up due to environmental degradation. The conference was told that the degradation could be the reason for the falling water level in the lake. A lake programme manager at the East African Community, Dr Tom Okurut, said the scientists should have predicted the changes.
