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”In fifty years from now, if nothing radical is done, Lake Victoria will be dead because of what we dump there,” says Professor Nyong’o, Governor of Kisumu County in Kenya in February 2018.

A dangerous prophecy taking into account the 68,800 km2 of this inland sea, named in honor of Queen Victoria by explorer Speke, the first European to reach it in 1858. The second largest lake in the world, the largest one in Africa, it harbors the largest freshwater fishing basin on the planet. Ecological hub, economic engine, natural reservoir, 30 to 50 million Tanzanian, Ugandan and Kenyan residents depend on it directly or indirectly (according to the World Bank, nearly 50% live on less than $ 1.25 per day).

Yet the giant of East Africa is in a phase of agony which is imperceptible and silent. On its shores, nobody believes it. Isn’t the lake gigantic and its pains so tiny?

However, the list of scratches is long. The global warming is affecting the distribution of fish and water levels, making annual the super-storms which formerly happened only every fifteen years. Overfishing and poaching accentuate the decrease in catch in numbers and size. The militarization of the protection of fishing areas is undermining the fisheries sector which is of major economic and social importance. Chinese imports of frozen tilapia make Kenya doubtful about its ability to feed itself. The development of the water hyacinth immobilizes the boats. Sand mining for commercial purposes destroys bank topography. Coastal towns, now industrialized, with unplanned urbanization, discharge their wastewater. Population growth and rural exodus are eroding wetlands, reducing the swampy natural filter which is supposed to purify runoff water, formerly trapped in marsh weeks and released clean into the lake. As a morbid touch on the picture, fishing communities have an HIV prevalence rate three times higher than the general population.

Social decommissioning creates poverty and poverty unconsciously allows the deterioration of the environment. A vicious circle where every need for survival or desire for profit causes the next injury. Everyone is aware that times have changed, without really understanding what that implies in his own existence. In the past, the giant was stronger than all the local residents. Now everyone daily nibbles a portion of his flesh. How to blame the trimmers of East African economic growth? Between living (through) and preserving the natural cycle of the lake – which does not belong to anyone belongs to all – the choice is quickly made, in the ignorance of the stake.

Faced with what he considers to be a general denial, Professor Okeyo, Kenyan whistleblower, says: ”Scientists have no time to devote to lies.” Echoing, weekenders invest the beaches of Victoria without taking care of those who don’t detect that a dark omen of erudite oracles insidiously materializes under their nose. –

Frédéric Noy