By Lake Zone Watch writer
A researcher from the Morogoro-based Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) has underlined the importance of conserving the Mara River basin ecosystem as a vital source of life for Tanzania and Kenya, warning its destruction would lead to terrible consequences.
Dr Makarius Lalika told a meeting organised last week by the World-Wide Fund (WWF) Tanzania in Musoma for stakeholders in environmental conservation that the Mara River basin has a huge contribution to the healthy lives of human beings and other living organisms in Africa’s largest freshwater landmass, Lake Victoria.
WWF has been in the forefront for conservation, sustainable and equitable use and restoration of freshwater resources and ecological processes in the Mara River basin under the Mara River Basin Management Initiative for Tanzania and Kenya.
Presenting a paper on his research that he conducted on the conservation of Mara River catchment area, Dr Lalika said environmental protection has special significance not only on the restoration of the area’s ecological balance, but also its presence has a direct impact on preventing waste from entering the sprawling Lake Victoria.
He said if this catchment area with its wetlands was non-existent, all kinds of waste matter would have entered Lake Victoria and adversely affecting living organisms like fishes, which are the source of the health and economy of the majority people along the lake.
“The presence of this basin, especially the wetlands, helps in filtering water and preventing waste which would have badly affected the lives of human beings and living organisms downstream,” Dr Lalika said.
Mara River basin covers a surface of 13,325 sq. kms, of which 65 per cent is located in Kenya and 35 per cent in Tanzania.
The basin is among the most important river basins in East Africa as it traverses the world-famous Maasai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, one of the seven natural wonders of the world boasting of wildebeest migration annually.