A letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, on the Pollution on Lake Victoria with its Fresh water ness:
Dear UN Secretary General,
I’m greatly honoured to open this discussion with you, and also bound to inform you that you’re doing a commendable work-over the massive environmental degradation on the world, Kudos….Honorable Ban-Ki Moon.
Subsequently sir, the rise of environmental degradation has its roots in the early phase of global environment awareness that occurred between 1960’s and 1980’s. It is worth remembering this juncture that when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 after the Second World War, for example, issues of environmental degradation were not perceived in global term. The problems of environmental were assumed to be dealt with within the sovereign states and within the confines of national governments. Spectacular crises and movements whose nature and impacts are significant in fully grasping the field of environmental communications, as we know it today triggered the global environmental awareness.
A case study of Lake Victoria in East Africa reveals the above impacts.
1st, recent environmental degradation or pollution of the one of the biggest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria trends in East Africa have highlighted the danger of imputing a direct change between the climate change, global warming and the lake-Lake Victoria pollution per se, and weakening of environment identities in East Africa.
2nd, as we all know that, the world over, the environment has attracted the attention of the most eminent leaders and academicians- for example; the immediate UN boss Koffi Anan with Green Belt Movement. This focus on the environment arises from the challenges that are generally known to scientists, albeit inadequate reported on by the media. Besides that, most ministries in the horn of East Africa countries tends to concentrate its scanty reports on environmental concerns in urban areas, including the Ministries of Local Governments which is widely known as the environment polluters- ministry, since they are the owners of urban centers and cannot regulate the vice neither amend their bylaws to curb this disaster on the Lake Victoria.
Furthermore, these have been gradual determination of the environment whose extents, however, has largely gone un-researched and consequently unreported. Moreover, despite the apparent obvious environmental challenges, the few reports on the effect of the global warming and climate change have not always been delivered in East Africa Communities. Consequently, a knowledge and awareness gap has been created between the media, academic institutions, and environmental agencies on the one hand, and community based stakeholders on the other hand- especially regions and urban centers on the Lake Victoria shores.
The questions therefore are:
1. How do we deliberately aim to bringing this gap?
2. Lake Victoria has been polluted to the fullest for the last 40 years, can it be repaired?
3. Most of the environmental challenges such as wetlands depletion, genetic and biodiversity loss and land degradation occur more frequently in the countryside’s (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) what is the remedy for this?
Giving the above backgrounds is significant because, the discussions about the environmental pollutions or degradations have been made within the contexts of the modern technologies.
I must also confess that my active involvement within environmental include starting with my compound cleanliness and Lake pollution campaign, at least, consciously has born some very little fruits. Primarily it is my emotional response to the deprivation suffered by those who depend on the Lake Victoria resources such as water for households, tourism and major-fishing industry etc.
Lastly, last and perhaps the most important of all: the failures, much larger than the manifest success…we’ve not been able to come up with refuge to stop degradation. We need the world and UN to stand up for the environment degradation in Lake Victoria, unless, we will loose our beautiful resources.
Fred Obera
Environmental Activist.
Kenya.