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Owino, Omondi Robert --- "Fouling Adam’s Eden: a legal analysis of the collective action challenge in Lake Victoria" [2015] ELECD 984; in Martin, Paul; Kennedy, Amanda (eds), "Implementing Environmental Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015)

Book Title: Implementing Environmental Law

Editor(s): Martin, Paul; Kennedy, Amanda

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783479290

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Fouling Adam’s Eden: a legal analysis of the collective action challenge in Lake Victoria

Author(s): Owino, Omondi Robert

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

8. Fouling Adam's Eden: a legal
analysis of the collective action
challenge in Lake Victoria
Omondi Robert Owino*

1. INTRODUCTION
Regrettably, Lake Victoria is today seriously threatened due to receding water
levels, soil and waste pollution, over-fishing, and a growing decline in the
health of its ecosystems. As a result, the livelihoods and well-being of over 30
million people who live around its basin are at risk. It is imperative that we
act urgently and decisively to halt further decline of the lake and the
surrounding environment.1

Lake Victoria2 is an indispensable shared resource in the East African
Community (EAC)3 and its basin is one of the most densely populated


* Doctoral Candidate Department of Public Law, International and European
Law, Faculty of Law, Bayreuth University (Germany), LL.M (Dar es Salaam),
LL.B (Hons) (Moi), Dip (KSL), Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
1
Kibaki (2007).
2
Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa by area and also the largest
tropical lake in the world. It is also the world's second largest freshwater lake by
surface area coming second only to Lake Superior in North America. Lake
Victoria boasts a surface area of about 68,000 km2 shared by Kenya (6%);
Uganda ­ (45%) and Tanzania (49%) with a shoreline that extends up to about
3,500 km and an average depth of about 40 m and a maximum depth of 80 m.
The Lake lies between latitude 0.7°´N ­ 3°´S ...