Industrial Runoff, Wetland Degradation, and Public Health Risk in the Lake Victoria Basin: Freshwater Vulnerability in a Conflict-Exposed Great Lakes Region

Abstract

The Lake Victoria Basin is one of East Africa’s most important freshwater systems and a shared ecological space linking Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi through hydrological, economic, and population networks. Although the lake itself is not the centre of a single armed conflict, it is situated within the wider African Great Lakes region, where recent and ongoing conflicts, displacement, border tensions, and livelihood pressures have increased the vulnerability of communities dependent on freshwater systems. Within this context, the degradation of wetlands is not only an environmental problem but also a public health and regional resilience issue.
This paper examines industrial runoff, agricultural intensification, and wetland degradation in the Lake Victoria Basin, with particular attention to the Katonga wetland system and communities reliant on natural water channels. The study analyses how industrial effluents and agricultural runoff may alter freshwater chemistry, increase exposure to potentially toxic elements, reduce the filtering capacity of wetlands, and create conditions favourable to waterborne pathogens. These processes are especially significant in rural and peri-urban areas where communities depend on local water sources and where formal monitoring systems may be limited.