Lake Victoria fish harvest hits five-year low on pollution tough laws

Fish production from Lake Victoria dropped to its lowest in five years to 90,743 tonnes highlighting the dwindling fortunes of farmers amid water pollution challenges and restrictive laws.

Official data shows that fish output from the country’s largest single source has declined by 19,159 tonnes over the period from the 109,902 tonnes realised in 2015.

The presence of heavy metals such as mercury, lead and copper in the lake has degraded quality of water making it harder for some fish species to breed.

“The fish catch from Lake Victoria has been dwindling over the years as a result of water pollution and restrictions on fishing in neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania,” said the Economic Survey 2020.

But even with dwindling harvests, Lake Victoria accounted for 62.5 percent of the 120,873 freshwater fish in 2019.

In early 2000, there were about 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of fish caught annually.

Kibos Sugar and the Kisumu County-owned Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company Ltd are among firms that have been blamed for failing to meet the standards set by the National Environment Management Authority for treating their waste before releasing it to the sewer line. It is this waste from the industries along the lake, untreated sewerage and widespread practice of open defecation that have continued to contaminate the lake.

The degraded quality of water of Lake Victoria has compelled fishermen to travel deep inside the water body to cast their nets to get a catch.

This and the pollution on the lake has drastically reduced the number of fish in the lake and denied fishermen revenue.

Other freshwater fish producers include Lake Turkana, Lake Naivasha, Lake Jipe, lake Baringo and fish farms.