There is need to reduce nitrogen that gets into Lake Victoria, Experts say.

 LVBC Executive Secretary Dr. Ali Said Matano{L} and Dr. Cargele Masso Coordinator for the International Nitrogen Management System addressing the press in Kisumu today on the issue of getting practices and management policies on Nitrogen in East Africa region-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo.

March 5, 2019.

There is need to reduce nitrogen that gets into Lake Victoria, Experts say.

THERE is need to reduce the amount of reactive nitrogen entering Lake Victoria as a nutrient being emitted there.

Experts says there is a lot of Nitrogen that goes into the Lake Victoria that is not needed in the Lake but needed elsewhere for greater help.

Addressing the participants during the second day of an International Conference on understanding of Nitrogen cycle under the International Nitrogen Management Systems{INMS} and getting practices and management policies on Nitrogen, Lake Victoria Basin Commission Executive Secretary Dr.Ali Said Matano said there is need to investigate practices and management policies at the local, national and regional level with a view to reduce negative impacts of reactive nitrogen on the ecosystems within the Lake Victoria.

Matano says the Nitrogen the Lake Victoria region has is too much hence something must be done to reduce it and taken for other uses like aiding plant growth in the field.

“The Nitrogen we have in this region is too much but in terms of crop production is it not there,” he says.

He says Nitrogen is very good but it not needed in the Lake Victoria, adding that a holistic approach is needed in managing the ecosystem.

Dr. Matano at the same time says one of the major contributors of pollution of the Lake Victoria is Industrial wastes from factories within the Lake Victoria region as well as raw sewer thus enabling the higher growth of water hyacinth.

“One of the symptoms that there is raw sewer entering the Lake Victoria is the presence of the Water hyacinth and this is because of the raw sewer,” Dr. Matano says.

He says there is a regional Industrial and Urban Effluent Treatment standard that has been spearheaded by the East African Community through the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, adding the standards have been adopted by the EAC Council of Ministers and being implemented by its Member states.

Dr.Matano adds that there are good policies but the implementation needs to be enhanced on the existing laws.

“If we can strengthen the National institutions to implement the existing laws of managing environment then this will be very much okay,” Dr. Matano adds.

Dr. Cargele Masso Coordinator for the International Nitrogen Management System says a set of recommendations for good nitrogen management strategies for the East African Region Demonstration Site be compiled in the interest of managing the water hyacinth.

He says barriers to achieving good nitrogen management strategies in the region and potential options to overcome them be identified.

Dr. Masso says barriers such as cultural, social and structural should be addressed.

Dr. Masso who also works for the Institute of Tropical Agriculture {ITTA} says Nitrogen is one of the nutrients that contribute a lot to issues of climate change which affects the whole world.

He adds that there should be a local solutions to the problem of high nitrogen in the East African region.

“International Nitrogen Management System works all over the world because Nitrogen is one of the nutrients that contributes to the Climate change alongside carbon,” Dr. Masso.

He says that there is need to work as a team to address the challenge of nitrogen, adding that there are three things that needs to be done namely increase nitrogen for field production and how to minimize the loss of Nitrogen.

Dr. Masso says the farmers within the East Africa Region will really benefit a lot as a result of this because there is a discussion on how to increase the Nitrogen usage to increase crop production.

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