Degradation of Lake Victoria

“The Lake Victoria Basin is incredibly rich in unique species found nowhere else on earth, yet its biodiversity is being decimated.” — Will Darwall, the head of IUCN’s Freshwater Biodiversity Unit Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest freshwater lake, has been completely transformed by agricultural pollution and invasive species including the water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) and Nile Perch (Lates neloticus). Hundreds of species of endemic Cichlid fish have disappeared completely in the last fifty years. Many more endemic species, some of which have yet to be scientifically studied, are also at risk for extinction, threatened primarily by high levels of heavy metals, agricultural chemicals, and raw sewage present in the lake water, as well as by ecological disturbance from introduced species.