Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. Though having multiple local language names, the lake was renamed after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton.
It is the largest lake in Africa and the second largest freshwater lake in the world at 68,800 sq km of area and 1100m above sea level it is shared by Uganda and Kenya. Arguably, Lake Victoria’s appeal is the cruises and fishing trips. Cruises on Lake Victoria are available on boats-for-hire and fishing trips where the catch is the gigantic Nile Perch which weighs over 100kg.
Lake Victoria is the world’s largest tropical lake and the largest lake in the African Great Lakes region. The lake supports the largest freshwater fishery in the world, producing 1 million tons of fish per year and employing 200,000 people in supporting the livelihoods of 4 million people. The major threats to the lake are deforestation, land use change, wetland degradation and discharge from urban areas, industries and farmlands.
The climate in the lake basin varies from tropical rain forest with rainfall over the lake for much of the year to a semi dry climate with intermittent droughts over some areas, and with temperatures varying between 12-26°C. Most of the lake’s water comes from rainfall. The lake is an important transport route linking the East African States, is a reservoir for at least four hydropower stations along the Nile, provides water for industrial and domestic use, and regulates local climate. It has the largest number of urban areas in its basin of all the African Great Lakes, and its wetlands receive and treat waste water from both urban and agricultural areas.
