Lake Kyoga (literally 'the place of bathing' in Runyoro language) is a large shallow

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

, about in area and at an elevation of 1,033 metres. The Victoria Nile flows through the lake on its way from

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...

to Lake Albert. The main inflow from Lake Victoria is regulated by the Nalubaale Power Station in Jinja. Another source of water is the

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

region on the border between Uganda and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. While Lake Kyoga is part of the African

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

system, it is not itself considered a great lake. Rivers and lakes of Uganda

The lake reaches a depth of about 5.7 metres, and most of it is less than 4 metres deep. Areas that are less than 3 metres deep are completely covered by water lilies, while much of the swampy shoreline is covered with

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

and the invasive

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.floating islands that drift between a number of small permanent islands. Extensive wetlands fed by a complex system of streams and rivers surround the lakes. Nearby Lake Kwania is a smaller lake but deeper.

Fauna and fishing

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern ...

s are numerous, as is aquatic fauna. There are at least 60 haplochromine cichlid species, as well as a smaller number of other fish species like Lake Victoria sardine and marbled lungfish. Many of the haplochromine cichlids are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

, but very closely related to the Lake Victoria species, and showing a similar level of diversity in terms of feeding. The Kyoga cichlids include both described species like '' Haplochromis latifasciatus'' and '' H. worthingtoni'', and undescribed like ''H.'' sp. "Kyoga flameback" and ''H.'' sp. "ruby". As in Lake Victoria, the Kyoga cichlids have been decimated by the introduced

Nile perch The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi , Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is w ...

and some species are already extinct. Because Kyoga generally is shallow and swampy, some subsections—"satellite lakes"—are isolated to various degrees from the main lake. The number of surviving haplochromine cichlids in each subsection is directly related to the status of the Nile perch. Despite being the largest by far, less than 50 haplochromine species survive in the main section where the Nile perch is common. In comparison, the much smaller satellite lakes Lemwa, Nyaguo and Nawampasa lack Nile perch, but at least 50 haplochromine species survive in each of the first two, and at least 60 in the last. Conversely, the small satellite lakes Nakuwa and Nyasala where Nile perch is abundant have less than 30 and 5 surviving haplochromines respectively. This also means that fishing in the Lake Kyoga system has gradually shifted from once targeting many native species, to now primarily targeting the native Lake Victoria sardine, the introduced Nile perch and introduced Nile tilapia (the two native tilapias, the Singida and Victoria, have become very rare, except in some satellite lakes). In 2006, only 4% of catches were haplochromine cichlids.

References

* DWD (2002) ''El Niño preparedness for Lake Kyoga and other flood prone areas of Uganda.'' Directorate of Water Development. Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment, Entebbe, Uganda. * ILM (2004) ''Support to the Management of Sudd Blockage on Lake Kyoga.'' Produced for the Integrated Lake Management Project by Environmental Impact Assessment Centre of Finland, EIA Ltd.
online PDF version
* Twongo, T. (2001) ''The Fisheries and environment of Kyoga Lakes.'' Fisheries Resources Research Institute (FIRRI), Jinja, Uganda.

External links

Lake Kyoga
(World Lakes Database) {{Lakes of Uganda Kyoga, Lake Nile basin