The bridge that would be a fish tomb

By Joe Ombuor and Caroline Nyanga

A political gaffe in the mid 1980s could be the real source of conflict between Kenya and Uganda over fish resources and territorial boundaries in Lake Victoria.

A decision to construct a causeway across the 200m long fast flowing stream, separating Rusinga Island from the mainland at Mbita, has resulted into dwindling fish stocks and disappearance of certain species.

With the construction of the causeway, several water channels were blocked.

Elderly folks say the causeway hampered movement of fish and interfered with their breeding pattern.

Environmentalists now want the causeway to be uprooted and replaced with a fly over when construction of the Mbita/Homa Bay road starts. Hopefully, that will alleviate the damage.

There have been claims that the once strong currents still push their way through the barrier via underground seepage that eventually could lead to implosion of land in Mbita, sending buildings and other infrastructure tumbling down.

But Mbita and Rusinga people, haunted by a painful past when they lost many relatives in the lake, insist that the bridge must be built before the causeway is demolished.

Songs have been composed in memory of people who died while crossing to the mainland, among them Odhiambo Winyo, father to nominated MP Millie Odhiambo.

Before the causeway was constructed, there were diverse views on the matter.

Cheaper causeway

They say Tom Mboya favoured a fly-over, but the idea died with him. His younger brother, the late Alphonse Okuku, while serving as the MP for Mbita, settled for the cheaper causeway to save lives and win the people’s support.

Mbita District Fisheries Officer Michael Omondi says the strong currents from the main lake into the gulf reduced pollution caused by fertiliser residues, pesticides, organic effluent and industrial deposits. The lake acts as the pollution sink for several sugar industries.

He says eutrophication (the depositing of nutrients into a water mass) that encourages the growth of algae worsened on the gulf side when the natural purification was tampered with.

"This has contributed to the falling of fish stocks in the gulf because algae starves water of oxygen during the night, resulting in the disappearance of species, such as Nile Perch, that require a lot of oxygen to survive," says Omondi.

Eutrophication is also to blame for the spread of the water hyacinth on the Winam Gulf side of the lake.

Source of Livelihoods

The causeway, initially a delight to the people of Rusinga, has now turned into a source of misery for those whose livelihood depends on fish and lake transport. Winam Gulf stretches nearly 100km to Kisumu.

The causeway hampered movement of fish when the flow from the main lake stopped. Many rivers along which fish breed empty into the Winam Gulf, among them Sondu Miriu, Nyando, and Awach.

Unlike in the past when fishermen easily landed good catches of the money minting Nile Perch on the gulf’s shores, they now have to venture deeper into the open lake — over 90 per cent of which is within Ugandan and Tanzanian territorial waters. The Suba Beach Management Chairman John Ooko Otieno, 70, says the gulf was a hub of 58 fish before the causeway was built.

"The gulf and the open lake played a complementary role when it came to fish species, with the former providing traditional varieties and the latter a haven of Nile perch, tilapia and omena," recalls Ooko.

"Today to catch the Nile Perch, fishermen have to wander into the waters of neighbouring countries, hence the frequent arrests and losses," he says. He says the gulf is practically dead, save for isolated stocks of kamongo (mud fish), mumi (cat fish), okoko, ningu, fwani and other indigenous varieties due to papyrus bushes along the rivers.

Even the popular ngege (tilapia) is gone and the limited populations of mbuta are much smaller.

Omondi says that while the causeway has contributed to the thinning of fish stocks in the gulf, human activity on the lakeshores has led to environmental degradation and the receding of lake waters.

"The gulf was rich in papyrus reeds that grew in swamps where certain species of fish breed while the rivers have shrunk or dried up altogether as a result of environmental degradation. That cannot be attributed to the causeway.