I remember moments in my childhood when our family used to do excursions up to Lake Victoria from Tanga, Tanzania where we used to live. This is more then 10 years ago.
It was always as exciting to hit the road awaiting a new adventure. A lot of the excitement for me was to find new places to fish (I was and still am very big on fishing). Also because we got to stay at hotels, which sometimes had air-conditioning and good showers (this we lacked at our house, expect one AC unit in the office room, which kept all the electronics from humidity).
Anyway Lake Victoria 10 years ago had tons of fish, we saw the hauls being brought in by the fishermen in the morning and evening. A lot of variety and good sizes. Even when I went fishing with my dad, we managed to catch some keepers. Lake Victoria is stunning by the way and absolutely massive, somehow calling it a lake does not do it justice.
Then yesterday on my daily perusing of the Internet I came across this little snippet of the current state of the lake and it got me sad.
It is worrying at what rate things are changing, seemingly for the worse. I cannot imagine how once such a pristine lake has become so lifeless as described by the people who are interviewed in this short piece. If it saddens me this much, I cant even imagine how devastating it must be for people who have relied on it and cherished it for countless of generations.
With the ever growing instability of the climate people are drawn closer to stable bodies of water and with it they bring what perhaps is the greatest oversight by humans, waste and resource abuse.
kamakawida 