Lake Victoria: Residents decry shortage of clean drinking water

Residents of Lake Victoria are having to rely on bottled drinking water owing to pollution of the lake.

The bottled water, they say, is expensive and therefore prohibitive especially to low income families. 

The locals told Wananchi Reporting that it is ironic that the World’s second largest freshwater lake cannot quench their thirst, because its waters are polluted, and even smelly.

Diana Akinyi from Sori in Migori County told Wananchi Reporting that the lake water sometimes smells, not to mention its ‘reddish brown’ or sometimes even green colour.

The green colour is often as a result of algal bloom, which refers to the accumulation of algae in freshwater which causes discoloration.

Many are blaming the increased contamination on heightened agricultural activities along the lake, injurious and unhealthy modern fishing activities like use of poison, and industries or other developments directing their wastes into the lake.

“In the past, say until early 1990s, we could drink directly from the lake, and we would just be fine. The water needed no boiling.

“I remember our parents waking up at dawn to fetch clean drinking water before churning of the water. All they did was sieve it using a piece of clean cloth to trap impurities,” said Shem Okello, from Kadem in Nyatike, Migori County.

According to the residents, they have had to rely on bottled water to quench their thirst, and it gets worse because the region is often hot and dry.

According to the residents, many of them continue to suffer from cases of Bilharzia, Typhoid and other waterborne diseases because of the contaminated lake water, with fishermen and children being the most exposed.

Many fear they that are increasingly getting exposed to waterborne diseases just by taking a dip in the lake, or using utensils washed in the contaminated lake water. That even boiling the water does not help, because it does not take away the smell.

Residents are asking their county governments to work closely with the national government to establish water purification plants, and tap water system for people living along the lake.