OPINION
On February 3, 2026 the Ministry of Water and Environment on the foul smell emanating from Lake Victoria, this is not only an environmental update but a warning of a deepening gender and climate justice crisis. Lake Victoria is a critical water catchment area that provides drinking, livestock and domestic water to millions of Ugandans. When this lifeline is polluted, the impacts are neither neutral nor evenly shared.
The Ministry for Water and Environment has attributed the foul smell to pollution from untreated sewage, human and plastic waste, industrial discharge, and excessive nutrient inflows that fuel harmful algal blooms. While these technical explanations are important, they obscure a crucial truth environmental degradation disproportionately harms women, children, and marginalized communities who depend directly on the lake for daily survival.
For women and girls living along Lake Victoria, polluted water translates into heavier unpaid care work, greater health risks, and lost economic opportunities. Women and girls are often responsible for collecting water, preparing food, and caring for sick family members. When water quality declines, they are forced to travel longer distances in search of safer sources which exposes them to sexual harassments like rape and defilement, spend more time boiling or treating water, and shoulder increased medical costs caused by waterborne diseases. This invisible labor is rarely counted, yet it sustains households and communities.
The pollution of Lake Victoria reflects systemic inequality. Climate change is already intensifying rainfall, flooding, and runoff, washing untreated waste into the lake and accelerating its degradation. Yet the communities suffering the most are informal settlement residents, small-scale fishers, and rural households that are least responsible for the pollution and the least equipped to adapt. This injustice is compounded by weak enforcement of environmental regulations and inadequate investment in sanitation infrastructure.
Additionally, Lake Victoria supports livelihoods that are central to women’s economic empowerment, including small-scale fishing, fish processing, and market trade. As water quality deteriorates, fish stocks decline and incomes shrink, pushing more women further into poverty .And environmental degradation thus reinforces gender inequality, undermining national commitments to women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and sustainable development.
Ministry’s acknowledgment of the problem is necessary, but acknowledgment without action risks normalizing the crisis. The Government of Uganda must move beyond statements and take urgent, coordinated action to protect Lake Victoria. This begins with immediate investment in functional sewage and waste treatment infrastructure in lakeside cities and municipalities, coupled with strict enforcement of regulations on industrial waste and urban waste disposal. Polluters must be identified, penalized, and compelled to restore the damage caused without exceptions.
The government must also integrate the protection of Lake Victoria into national climate adaptation and gender strategies, recognizing clean water as a foundation for climate resilience and women’s economic empowerment. Adequate financing should be allocated to water quality monitoring, early warning systems, and community-led protection initiatives, particularly those led by women living along the lake.
Finally, decision-making on water governance must be transparent and inclusive.Government should create and strengthen platforms that meaningfully involve women, youth, and frontline communities in planning, implementation, and oversight. Protecting Lake Victoria is not optional; it is a constitutional duty, a climate obligation, and a moral responsibility to current and future generations.
By Ainembabazi Shallon,
Programs Officer
Women For Green Economy Movement Uganda
