Wankyo Gatti
27 November 2005
Arusha — About 40 experts from the customs and environment departments of East African countries who attended a recently held five-day workshop on issues related to compliance and enforcement of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEA), held in Arusha this week, have expresses their concern over the shrinking water level in the region's largest lake, the Victoria.
Recent Satellite photographs taken by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have shown that more than 600 lakes in Africa have been shrinking dramatically over the past decades, drained by deforestation, pollution and farming.
Water levels at Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile river, have dropped by more than a meter in the past 10 years. The vast East African water body, which joins the three EA members countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, is reported to be supporting more than 30 million people in the region but has been suffering from mass human activities, pollution and drought.
The delegates warned that water shortages could lead to political tension between countries that have to share diminishing water resources, by pointing out that "All African lakes except Lake Tana are shared across international borders, and national governments will find it increasingly difficult to agree how to share the water."
The disappearance of freshwater lakes will also have a dramatic impact on the region's economy. Africa's lakes currently hold around 30, 000 cubic kilometers of water, and yield about 1,5 million tons of freshwater fish each year.
Participants were from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia who convened here at the forum organized UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the World Customs Organizations, Interpol and the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, all being grouped under the 'Green Custom' initiative.
The Arusha held meeting also stated that environmental crime was "a big and increasingly lucrative business" that involves hazardous waste dumping, smuggling proscribed hazardous materials, exploiting and trafficking in protected natural resources, among others vices.
According to UNEP, environmental crime account for between US$ 22billion and US$ 30 billion annually, adding that the smuggling of ivory, tiger bones and rare orchids were direct threat to species survival.
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