Kampala — DARK-brown water has appeared on Lake Victoria near the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) in Entebbe. This comes after the construction of two piers in the bay near the centre. The National Water and Sewerage Corporation and the centre have been blamed for the brown muddy water.

It is caused by the murram deposited into the lake from the construction of the piers. UWEC is building a pier for a restaurant and an anchor for luxury boats, while the corporation has set up a pier for water intake from the lake.

Over the weekend, many people, who had come for sight-seeing along the lakeshores near the centre, were disappointed with the unpleasant colour of the water.

"We had started removing the murram but could not complete before the beginning of the rain season," said Dr. Andrew Seguya, the UWEC executive director.

"It was necessary to suspend the removal of the murram because the ground is so steep and slippery."

He noted that they had conducted an environment impact assessment since the water had to be dammed before construction could begin.

A source told The New Vision that the corporation removed some of the soil near the lake, while the wildlife centre did not.

UWEC launched the project in November 2007. Dr. Festus Bagoora, an expert with the National Environment Management Authority, said if they find out that the organisations did not establish mitigation measures to redress the negative impacts, they would be ordered to do an environmental audit.

The source said the authority cleared the wildlife centre's project but added that it was not clear whether they had monitored to ensure they stuck to the conditions.