AIDS TO NAVIGATION IN LAKE VICTORIA

AIDS TO NAVIGATION INSTALLATION LAKE VICTORIA

Establishment of navigational aids.

Of obvious importance to the safety of shipping is the establishment of navigational aids such as light houses, lightships, buoys and radar beacons on the Lake. As regards the Seas, an obligation is laid down by the SOLAS Convention on states Parties to arrange for the 23establishment and maintenance of such aids to navigation as, in their opinion, the volume of traffic justifies and the degree of risk requires, and to arrange for information relating to these aids to be made available to all concerned13. Under sections 10(g) and 11(2)(e) of the Act, this obligation is the responsibility of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission and the Maritime administrative Units respectively of the partner states. However the Act is ambiguous in as far as it does not give a criteria and guidelines for the establishment of such aids. Further, it does not provide for mechanism through which this is to be achieved the source of funding as well as a time frame within which states should discharge this obligation. The questions as regards how, when and what happens in case the concerned Authorities do not discharge this obligation is left unanswered. There is a need for redress of this void if safety is to be improved upon in the region.

Moreover, according to the project documents of the Project on Enhancement of the Safety of Navigation on Lake Victoria which are available from the offices of the East African Commision Secretariat at Kisumu, it has come to light that in the past there were approximately 30 navigation aids in the form of visual marks with lights on Lake Victoria. Today there are virtually no aids to navigation on the lake as they have either disappeared or fallen into disuse due to poor maintenance or have been vandalized. The sailing directions, last revised in 1972 are still being used but are rather outdated. So are the available navigation charts of the lake which were last updated in 1956. In addition, nautical surveys were last created between 1900 -1906.

The duty and or obligation to improve safety on the lake is a two way responsibility. That is ship operators on one hand and the responsible contracting governments as well as concerned authorities on the other. It is the responsibility of the three governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to put in place navigational aids as well as make available updated navigational maps and charts to the Lake users. This is a necessity which cannot be postponed.

In the past years, there were approximately 30 lit and unlit Aids to Navigation but they have almost all disappeared. Today there are no “officially” sanctioned aids to marine navigation on Lake Victoria.

On 12th June 2014 Comarco were awarded the contract to plan, design, supply, install and commission new ATN at the following locations:

·                     Jinja Port – Uganda

·                     Kisumu Port – Kenya

·                     Musoma Port – Tanzania

·                     Mwanza North Port – Tanzania

·                     Mwanza South Port – Tanzania

·                     Kemondo Bay Port – Tanzania

·                     Bukoba Port – Tanzania

·                     Entebbe Port – Uganda

·                     Port Bell - Uganda

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Lake Victoria

Located at 1.134m above the sea level, Lake Victoria, with a surface of 20,000 square nautical miles, is the second largest lake in the world. It should be considered as a sea from the point of view of the safety of navigation. The equator crosses it and the length of its coast is about 2.000 nautical miles. It is shared between the three Member States of the EAC: to the North-East, 6 % of the surface belongs to Kenya, to the North and to the West, 43 % belongs to Uganda, and all the Southern part (51 %) belongs to Tanzania.

It includes many islands of which approximately 200 are inhabited. There are numerous vessels plying the lake, cargo, vehicle, rail and passenger ferries. Nevertheless fishing constitutes a significant economic resource as it is estimated the some 2 million receive income directly or indirectly from fishing. It follows that the fishermen are possibly the major navigators on the lake and that often times take greatest risk as some fish from no greater vessel than a canoe.

Three very big urban areas border the Lake: Kisumu which is the third largest city of Kenya, Entebbe/Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and Mwanza which is the second largest city of Tanzania.

OSIL install two data buoys to monitor environmental concerns in Lake Victoria, Kenya 

OSIL recently completed the installation of two data buoys along Lake Victoria in Kenya to help manage the local environment monitoring various environmental concerns including hyacinth menace and contamination of the lake water.

In addition to monitoring atmospheric components of the lake, such as moisture, oxygen levels and temperature, the sensors on the data buoys will also measure wind direction and levels of potentially harmful chemicals in the lake. By better understanding the environment, one benefit is that fishermen will be provided with real-time information on wind patterns helping them to avoid being trapped by regions of floating hyacinth which is blown across the lake.

The 5m tall data buoys measuring 2.6m in diameter were designed and built to be robust and protected from the local wildlife to ensure the security of the data collected. This real-time data will be relayed to base stations at 15 to 30 minute intervals where the data will then be analysed and studied trending changes to the lakes environment.

Richard Williams, Managing Director of OSIL, said: “We are delighted to help support the Kenyan authorities. These innovative buoys are designed by our specialist team in the UK to capture invaluable data which will help preserve Lake Victoria for future generations”