Title: The Significance of Lake Victoria
Recapping the learning from last lesson:
Recapping the learning from earlier in the course:
Challenge Activity
DO NOW: Work on your own to answer these questions in full sentences in your book.
Using the map, describe the location of Lake Victoria?
Describe Lake Victoria and its location using all the words below.
68,800km2 - Uganda - Kenya - Tanzania - Border
Challenge
From this cropped image of Africa, can you describe where Lake Victoria is in Africa?
Task: Create a spider diagram with “Uses for Lake Victoria” in the middle, and add as many ways as you can think of how Lake Victoria might be useful.
Hydroelectricity
Fishing
Tourism
Disposal of Human Waste
Transport
Domestic use, eg water for people’s homes
To irrigate crops
Economic uses… How will they benefit the countries more widely?
Increased use of Lake Victoria as a transport link
Increased use of the Lake to generate hydroelectricity
Increased use of Lake Victoria to produce fish
TASK: Explain in three paragraphs, how an increase in each of these uses would benefit countries more widely.
Sentence Starter
Countries would benefit from X because...
Model answer - Transport
Using Lake Victoria as a transport link would increase trade between the countries who border it. This would encourage the growth of different industries and increase the wealth of the countries. Furthermore, this increased wealth could be spent on essential services such as healthcare and education which would further benefit the countries.
However, what problems are increasing these likely to lead too?
Why do some Lakes look like this?
Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland
Lake Victoria
Eutrophication
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global body on nature conservation, has come out with a new report in which it warns that 76 per cent of the biodiversity in Africa’s Lake Victoria is at the risk of becoming extinct.
This was due to overfishing and environmental damage as wetlands were being used for industries. This could be a disaster for locals as many of these species are very important culturally, and in small amounts are traded at the local market and important for people's jobs.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global body on nature conservation, has come out with a new report in which it warns that 76 per cent of the biodiversity in Africa’s Lake Victoria is at the risk of becoming extinct.
Major threats to the lake’s ecosystem include pollution from agricultural effluent including nutrient loads, herbicides and pesticides, industrial effluent and domestic sewage (including solid waste) and pharmaceuticals from urban areas discharged into the lake. They are affecting 57 per cent of all species and 88.3% of threatened species native to the Basin.
Overall, where are you on this scale?
Most in favour
Countries should certainly increase the use of Lake Victoria
Most against
Lake Victoria should be left alone by humans entirely.
Challenge
What do you think has caused the rapid decline in Water Hyacinth?
Re-cap Quiz!
2. What are the names of the three countries that have a border with Lake Victoria?
3. What is meant by “hydroelectricity”?
4. Recap: Name two problems caused by Cairo’s rapidly growing population
5. Recap: State two rivers in Africa, not including the Nile!