Authors: Dauglas Wafula Juma Hongtao Wang Fengting Li
Publish Date: 2014/01/18
Volume: 21, Issue: 8, Pages: 5737-5746
Abstract
Anthropogenicinduced water quality pollution is a major environmental problem in freshwater ecosystems today As a result of this eutrophication of lakes occurs Population and economic development are key drivers of water resource pollution To evaluate how growth in the riparian population and in the gross domestic product GDP with unplanned development affects the water quality of the lake this paper evaluates Lake Victoria Kenyan waters basin Waters quality data between 1990 and 2012 were analyzed along with reviews of published literature papers and reports The nitratenitrogen NO3N soluble phosphorus PO4P chlorophyll a and Secchi transparencies were evaluated as they are key water quality indicators The NO3N increased from 10 μg l−1 in 1990 to 98 μg 1−1 in 2008 while PO4P increased from 4 μg l−1 in 1990 to 57 μg l−1 in 2008 The population and economic growth of Kenya are increasing with both having minimums in 1990 of 24143 million people and 1218 billion US dollars to maximums in 2010 of 39742 million people and 32163 billion US dollars respectively A Secchi transparency is reducing with time indicating an increasing pollution This was confirmed by an increase in aquatic vegetation using an analysis of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer MODIS images of 2000 and 2012 of Kenyan waters This study found that increasing population and GDP increases pollution discharge thus polluting lakes One of major factors causing lake water pollution is the unplanned or poor waste management policy and serviceThis study is part of the Africa–China Cooperation Program on Environment which is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China MOST and coordinated by the United Nations Environment Program UNEP nos 2010DFA92820 and 2010DFA92800 It was supported in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities no 0400219184
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