Lake Kyoga (literally 'the place of bathing' in

Runyoro The Nyoro language (autonym: ''Runyoro'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Nyoro people of 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 th ...

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 large ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, about in area and at an elevation of 1,033 metres. The

Victoria Nile The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...

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 Nalubaale Power Station, formerly known as Owen Falls Dam, is a hydroelectric power station across the White Nile near its source at Lake Victoria in Uganda. ''Nalubaale'' is the Luganda name for Lake Victoria. Location The dam sits across the N ...

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 lakes ...

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 ''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a Serial imagery, series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionism, Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his Fondation Monet in Giverny, flower garden at Fond ...

, 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 island A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from several centimeters to a few meters. Floating islands are a common natural phenomenon that are found in many parts of the world. They exist less co ...

s 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 Lake Kwania is in the districts of Lira, Apac and Amolatar in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is part of a large wetland along the White Nile (Victoria Nile) between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert. The wetland, which includes Lake Kwania, the e ...

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 __NOTOC__ The haplochromine cichlids are a tribe of cichlids in subfamily Pseudocrenilabrinae called Haplochromini. This group includes the type genus (''Haplochromis'') plus a number of closely related genera such as '' Aulonocara'', '' Astat ...

cichlid species, as well as a smaller number of other fish species like

Lake Victoria sardine The silver cyprinid (''Rastrineobola argentea'') also known as the Lake Victoria sardine, mukene,and omena (native language), dagaa (swahili language) is a species of pelagic, freshwater ray-finned fish in the carp family, Cyprinidae from East Af ...

and

marbled lungfish The marbled lungfish (''Protopterus aethiopicus'') is a lungfish of the family Protopteridae. Also known as the leopard lungfish, it is found in Eastern and Central Africa, as well as the Nile region. At 133 billion base pairs, it has the large ...

. 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 elsew ...

, 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 ''Formally Haplochromis latifasciatus, Now Astatotilapia Latifasciata'' is a species of cichlid that is endemic to Uganda where restricted to the Lake Kyoga system, including Lake Bisina (a medium-sized lake to the east of Lake Kyoga itself) and ...

'' 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 wid ...

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 Nile tilapia (''Oreochromis niloticus'') is a species of tilapia, a cichlid fish native to the northern half of Africa and the Levante area, including Israel, and Lebanon. Numerous introduced populations exist outside its natural range. It i ...

(the two native tilapias, the

Singida Singida is a town in central Tanzania. The town is the location of the regional headquarters of Singida Region as well as the district headquarters of Singida Urban District. The region and district are named after the town. Transport Road l ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, 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