Lake Victoria
Travel Blog • Ben Keene • 02.17.06 | 1:05 PM ET
Area: 26,564 sq. mi. (68,800 sq. km)
Coordinates: 1 0 S 33 0 E
The shriveling Aral Sea made the news first, followed soon by Lake Chad, which, in 2001, researchers reported had shrunk to 1/20th of its former size. According to the International Rivers Network (IRN), a nonprofit organization monitoring rivers and their watersheds worldwide, Lake Victoria’s water level has also dropped sharply in recent years, reaching its lowest point since 1951. Lake Victoria is the largest such body of water on the African continent and the source of the Nile, and this finding certainly has seriously implications for some 30 million people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who rely on its resource. The study cited by IRN contends that human activity, namely the building of a large dam, and drought conditions have contributed to the receding shoreline.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.