Oxygen concentrations in hypolimnetic waters (i.e. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. Additionally, the water quality, nutrient supply, temperature, and other environmental factors could have played a role. [66][67] The last were first scientifically described in 2017 and very little is known about them: P. entebbe is only known from near Entebbe (the only known specimen was collected in 1955 and it is unknown if it was in or near the lake) and P. busungwe only at Busungwe Island in the northwestern part of the lake. The area of lake victoria’s surface is shared among three countries that majorly make up the east African community; Kenya covers 6%, Uganda covers 45% and 49% is in Tanzania. Lake Victoria, also called Victoria Nyanza, largest lake in Africa and chief reservoir of the Nile, lying mainly in Tanzania and Uganda but bordering on Kenya. [20] During its geological history, Lake Victoria went through changes ranging from its present shallow depression, through to what may have been a series of much smaller lakes. Jäger, J., Bohunovsky, L., Radosh, L., & Sustainability Project. [89][91][92][93] A green power plant that uses harvested water hyacinth (but also can use other degradable waste) was constructed in Kisumu County in 2013. The Ugandan cities of Kampala and Entebbe lie along or near the northern coast. These cities and towns are also home to many factories that discharge some chemicals directly into the lake or its influent rivers. The set up of small beaches and local authorities around the lake lack proper sewage treatment facilities allowing pollutants to find their way into the water. The removal of Haplochromis, however, may have contributed to the increasing frequency of algal blooms,[27][63][64] which may in turn be responsible for mass fish kills. Het Victoriameer (ook wel Victoria Nyanza) is het grootste meer van Afrika en het op een na grootste zoetwatermeer op aarde. Being relatively shallow for its size, with a maximum depth of 84 meters (276 feet) and a mean depth of 40 meters (131 feet), Lake Victoria ranks as the seventh largest freshwater lake by volume , containing 2,750 cubic kilometers (2.2 million acre-feet) of water . Extensive fish kills, Nile perch, loss of habitat and overfishing have caused many fisheries to collapse and many protein sources to be unavailable at the market for local consumption. Its area is 26,828 square miles (69,484 square km). Lake Victoria, a naturally occurring shallow freshwater lake of the Murray catchment and part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales, Australia.. Where is Serengeti National Park? [30] A 2016 project digitized ten-thousand points and created the first true bathymetric map of the lake. [18] Average evaporation on the lake is between 2.0 and 2.2 metres (6.6 and 7.2 ft) per year, almost double the precipitation of riparian areas. Only North America's Lake Superior is larger. ", 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T60318A47182908.en. [38] This is far more species of fish than any other lake in the world, except Lake Malawi. Few fisheries, though, have been able to make the switch to catching the Nile perch, since that requires a significant amount of capital resources.[83]. The sand filtration helps reduce water-borne diseases and is based on the use of the local environment. Nevertheless, others of these features are not consistent within the lakes and have not been adequately explained.…. Kenya has 6% of the lake, Uganda has 45% and Tanzania has the largest share with 49%. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Found on the western side of Africa's Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria borders the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Find out by taking this quiz about Africa. Among these are the hippopotamus, African clawless otter, spotted-necked otter, marsh mongoose, sitatunga, bohor reedbuck, defassa waterbuck, cane rats, and giant otter shrew. [81] UGFD officials argued that Nile perch must have spread to Lake Victoria by themselves by passing through the Owen Falls Dam when shut down for maintenance, but this is considered highly unlikely by many scientists. Its waters fill a shallow depression in the centre of the great plateau that stretches between the Western and Eastern Rift Valleys. [21][36], Most of these lakes are relatively shallow (like Victoria) and part of the present-day upper Nile basin. Scattered along the beautiful shores of Lake Victoria, there are approximately 84 secluded clusters of islands, known as the Ssese islands. The lake is located close to the equator on the eastern side of Africa, with most of the lake … 1. (2017). Log in. The overall effects of the water hyacinth, however, are still unknown. Lake Victoria’s fish. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The lake’s shores vary in aspect. [16] The lake has a shoreline of 7,142 km (4,438 mi) when digitized at the 1:25,000 level,[17] with islands constituting 3.7% of this length. Because of this, most of Lake Victoria's nutrients are thought to be locked up in lake-bottom deposits. Overall, the timing of the decline could be linked to all of these factors and perhaps together, in combination, they were more effective than any one deterrent would have been by itself. [31], Lake Victoria and its wetlands has a large population of Nile crocodiles, as well as African helmeted turtles, variable mud turtles, and Williams' mud turtle. Kateregga, E., & Sterner, T. (January 01, 2009). [35] Disregarding the haplochromines, the only native Victoria cichlids are two critically endangered tilapia, the Singida tilapia or ngege (Oreochromis esculentus) and Victoria tilapia (O. Lake Victoria is shared among three countries in Africa. [62][63][64] With some 80 percent of Haplochromis species feeding off detritus, and equally capable of feeding off one another, they represented a tight, internal recycling system, moving nutrients and biomass both vertically and horizontally through the water column, and even out of the lake via predation by humans and terrestrial animals. [86][90], Growth of the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria has been tracked since 1993, reaching its maxima biomass in 1997 and then declining again by the end of 2001. In 1927-1928 Michael Graham conducted the first ever systematic Fisheries Survey of Lake Victoria. 1. Crisman, T.L., Chapman, Lauren J., Chapman, Colin A., & Kaufman, Les S. (2003). Only North America's Lake Superior is larger. (2008). 1999. [38] Two of the snail genera, Biomphalaria and Bulinus, are intermediate hosts of the parasite bilharzia (schistosomiasis). See health & safety details. In 2002, Uganda completed a second hydroelectric complex in the area, the Kiira Hydroelectric Power Station, with World Bank assistance. [37][41] The zooplanktivores have been least affected and in the late 1990s had reached densities similar to, or above, the densities before the drastic declines, although consisting of fewer species and often switching their diet towards macroinvertebrates. At the same time it was warned that this could present a serious danger to the native fish species and required extensive research into possible ecological effects before done. [86] Greater growth was observed in the northern part of the lake, in relatively protected areas, which may be linked to current and weather patterns and could also be due to the climate and water conditions, which are more suitable to the plants growth (as there are large urban areas to the north end of the lake, in Uganda). Lake Victoria is located in east central Africa along the equator. The search by Europeans for the source of the Nile led to the sighting of the lake by the British explorer John Hanning Speke in 1858. Geologically, Lake Victoria is relatively young at about 400,000 years old. The lake’s only outlet is the Victoria Nile, which exits from the northern coast. "Lake Victoria has the potential to boost cruise tourism in the region by generating employment, earning the three countries foreign currency, social benefits to host destinations, promoting global community and also promoting international understanding and peace." [41] Initially the population of the Nile perch was relatively low, but a drastic increase happened, peaking in the 1980s, followed by a decline starting in the 1990s.[41]. At the lake’s southeastern corner is Speke Gulf, and at the southwestern corner Emin Pasha Gulf. Now let's learn about Africa's other 8 largest lakes in Africa. [29], Many mammal species live in the region of Lake Victoria, and some of these are closely associated with the lake itself and the nearby wetlands. With a surface area of 69,485 square kilometers, Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake, and the world’s largest tropical lake, according to Diversity Inland Waters (DIW). LAKE VICTORIA, February 29, 2016 – When an English explorer stumbled upon Lake Victoria in the middle of the 19 th century, the lake’s 38,000 mile-long shoreline was pristine - broken by small, shallow bays, inlets and wetlands. European Investment Bank started the project in 2013 with the aim of protecting the environmental health of the lake, through improved water and sanitation to the towns whose pollution is part of the degradation of the lake. LAKE VICTORIA, February 29, 2016 – When an English explorer stumbled upon Lake Victoria in the middle of the 19 th century, the lake’s 38,000 mile-long shoreline was pristine - broken by small, shallow bays, inlets and wetlands. Until 1963, the fastest and newest ferry, MV Victoria, was designated a Royal Mail Ship. [8][9] This expedition was financially sponsored by the Royal Geographic Society. According to a CNN report, a mixture of lethal weather, poor communication and lack of resources are the three biggest cause of the high fatalities per square kilometre at the freshwater lake.. The shoreline is over 3,400 km long and home to numerous rock dwelling cichlids. life for the people living within the Lake Victoria Basin which is in line with the Bank’s focus areas (Hi5s). The Kagera River, the largest and most important of the lake affluents, enters the western side of Lake Victoria just north of latitude 1° S. The only other river of note entering from the west is the Katonga, north of Kagera. Many archipelagos are contained within the lake, as are numerous reefs, often just below the surface of the clear waters. [36][41] The Victoria haplochromines are part of an older group of more than 700 closely related species, also including those of several smaller lakes in the region, notably Kyoga, Edward–George, Albert, and Kivu. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria. The release of large amounts of untreated wastewater (sewage) and agricultural and industrial runoff directly into Lake Victoria over the past 30 years has greatly increased the nutrient levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake "triggering massive growth of exotic water hyacinth, which colonised the lake in the late 1990s". [38] Initially it was feared that this number was even higher, by some estimates 65 percent of the total species,[47] but several species that were feared extinct have been rediscovered after the Nile perch started to decline in the 1990s. And that is why we are interested in how much is being abstracted by those countries” Tindimugaya explained. Lake Victoria is the second largest lake in the world with a surface area of 68.000 Sq. Africa's largest lake is Lake Victoria. Join now. The Lake Victory Water and Sanitation Project (LVWATSAN) implemented by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) has greatly impacted on the lives of people living in the 15 towns of the 5 East African Community States where the project has been implemented Herbert Nuwamanya, The LVWATSAN Project Coordinator Uganda says the project has highly improved … In contrast, the Owen Falls (now flooded by a dam) between Victoria and Kyoga were essentially a series of rapids that did not effectively block fish movements between the two lakes. [101] Ultimately, the Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley, on an expedition funded by the New York Herald newspaper, confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating the lake and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the lake's northern shore. [70][71] There are 17 species of bivalves (Corbicula, Coelatura, Sphaerium, and Byssanodonta), including 6 endemic species/subspecies. [65], At a genus level, most of these are widespread in Africa, but the very rare Xenobarbus and Xenoclarias are endemic to the lake, and the common Rastrineobola is near-endemic. pp. However, considering the fact that the Nile river links to Lake Victoria. Pollution of Lake Victoria is mainly due to discharge of raw sewage into the lake, dumping of domestic and industrial waste, and fertiliser and chemicals from farms. The vegetated shores of Lake Victoria near the Speke Resort in Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda. Lake Victoria covers land in all of the following countries EXCEPT Get the answers you need, now! It feeds primarily on female mosquitos. The Victoria Nyanza and Its Fisheries: A Report on the Fish Survey of Lake Victoria 1927–1928 and Appendices. Among the freshwater lakes of the world, it is exceeded in size only by Lake Superior in North America. [42], The Victoria haplochromines are distinctly sexually dimorphic (males relatively brightly colored; females dull),[45] and their ecology is extremely diverse, falling into at least 16 groups, including detritivores, zooplanktivores, insectivores, prawn-eaters, molluscivores and piscivores. Njoka. (2006). Located in Entebbe and with Victoria Mall Entebbe reachable within 2.5 miles, Lake Victoria Country Home has express check-in and check-out, non-smoking rooms, a garden, free WiFi and a bar. LVRLACC has a current membership of 113 local authorities cutting across three countries namely Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda that share Lake Victoria, with prospective membership from Burundi and Rwanda. Due to the presence of the Nile perch, the natural balance of the lake's ecosystem has been disrupted. A narrow channel leads into the Kavirondo Gulf, which has an average width of 16 miles (25 km) and extends for 40 miles (64 km) eastward to Kisumu, Kenya. Answered Lake Victoria covers land in all of the following countries EXCEPT 1 [76], Lake Victoria supports Africa's largest inland fishery (as of 1997). Animal flesh decays considerably faster, however, so the fertility of the lake is dependent on the rate at which these nutrients can be taken up by fish and other organisms. Sayer, C.A., L. Máiz-Tomé, and W.R.T. Featuring room service, this property also provides guests with a playground. [78][79] Some of these, including tilapia and ningu (Labeo victorianus), had already declined in the first half of the 20th century due to overfishing. Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, on the lake's northern shore. This quiz has tags. The Lake Victoria region is one of the most densely populated in Africa; within 50 miles (80 km) of its shores live several million people, nearly all Bantu-speaking. (See East African Rift System.) One of the Scorched by climate change and drained by industrial farms, the country’s most important river system [41][80] To boost fishing, several species of non-native tilapia and Nile perch were introduced to the lake in the 1950s. Uganda Access points to Lake Victoria from Uganda include Kampala, Jinja & Entebbe. There is a printable worksheet available for download here so you can take the quiz with pen and paper.. The lake has a maximum depth of between 80 and 84 m (262 and 276 ft)[11][14] and an average depth of 40 m (130 ft). Study shows evolution does not always mean more diversification. As of 2016, an environmental data repository exists for Lake Victoria. Fiedler, P.L. (August 01, 2008). 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