AFRICANEWS
TanzaniaSave Lake Tanganyika project onEnvironmentby Charles Mubambe
"The lake and its life are in a delicate balance. Its future is uncertain: the lake's flora and fauna may not be able to adapt to the changes brought about by human activity. The results of millions of years of evolution may be lost in just a short time," says Samu Samu Kipaila, a Congolese (DR) environmental expert who talked to this writer at Mpulungu Harbour on the Zambian side of the lake. Lake Tanganyika is a source of fish, a highway, a supply of drinking and washing water and a receptacle for effluent. Unfortunately, traditional attitudes and responses to land and water resource management as well as practices of waste disposal are no longer sustainable because they cannot keep pace with the rapid increase in human population density.
The increase in demand for food has greatly accelerated soil erosion rate in recent years. Urbanisation is also a newer phenomenon that creates a different set of threats; sewage, household and industrial waste find their way into water courses and ultimately into the lake. The basins of some large in-flowing rivers, such as the Malagarasi and the Ruzisi, contain much fertile, agricultural land. Clearing and tilling of the soil enables natural weathering to remove the topsoil to the lake where it joins fertilisers or insecticides washed from the catchment areas. "The accelerating rate of environmental change caused by human activities is now much faster than the fauna's adaptive capabilities. Although people are a vital part of the region's biodiversity, there is a real danger that through its overwhelming influence, biodiversity will be converted into biomonopoly," says James Phiri, director of the Environmental Council of Zambia, who coordinates the Zambian side of the programme. Ownership and responsibility for land maintenance is uncertain and information on better techniques has not reached the practitioners, most of whom have not been trained to look towards the long-term sustainability of their natural resources. Lake Tanganyika is exceptionally old. Its present basins have been water-filled for at least ten million years and some sediments date back twice this period. With a surface area of 33,000 square kilometres, the lake has a mean depth of almost 600 metres - and one and a half kilometres at its deepest point. The total volume of water is some 19,000 square kilometres. Many of the organisms that live in Lake Tanganyika are found nowhere else. There are at least 300 fish species - more are continually being discovered - of which two thirds are unique to the lake. The most successful family, the Cichlidae, has over two hundred species, and all, except five, are found only in this lake. As well as the famous freshwater jellyfish, there is an abundance of endemic species among the molluscs and crustaceans of the lake and two endemic aquatic snakes. In a bid to redress the situation, the countries sharing the Lake Tanganyika initiated a project to establish a sustainable regional management plan for pollution control, conservation and maintenance of biodiversity. The Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Project (LTBP) is aimed at helping the countries tapping from this huge resource to produce an effective and sustainable system for managing and conserving the biodiversity of this water mass. The project, running from 1995 to 2000, is funded by the Global Environmental Facility through the United Nations Development Programme. It is being implemented by institutions from the riparian countries with advice from international agencies. By involving local communities in its design, the strategy has embraced the dual needs of development and conservation, and aims at protecting livelihoods of local people. "Knowledge and understanding of the complexities of the changing ecology are needed in order to educate the only animal capable of deliberately changing its habits into a more fruitful integration with the environment," says the LTBP. It is also focusing on biodiversity to find out what species and combinations of species and habitats are under particular threat. LTBP is identifying sources of pollution, evaluate the consequences and find preventative measures. It is also monitoring sedimentation, the movement and impact of soil entering the lake. The socio-economics and environmental education, have been identified as two interlinked programmes intended to raise awareness of critical environmental issues among user groups, and facilitate translating the scientific studies into locally acceptable practices and policies in which local people are able to play a much greater part in conservation and development. Incorporated under these headings are studies on fishing and agricultural practices, merits of sites for underwater national parks, the relevance of the legal systems of land ownership, lake conservation and developmental needs considering all the problems associated with the huge distances and poor communications involved. With coordination from the project head office in Dar es Salaam, teams of specialists seconded from government departments, universities, research institutions and NGOs carry out the work. These individuals work hand in hand with international experts in the respective fields and communities whose livelihoods depend upon the lake.
"Towards the end of the project's life it is expected that institutions within the region will have developed the capacity to continue the monitoring and advisory work necessary to ensure long-term environmental management of the lake region," says Phiri.
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