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02/10/2006:

"Uganda accused of 'pulling plug' on disappearing waters of Lake Victoria"

Engineers in Uganda are secretly draining Lake Victoria to generate electricity, flouting an international agreement to protect the world's second largest freshwater lake, according to a new report.
Daniel Kull, a hydrologist with the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in Nairobi, Kenya, says the country is directing more of the lake's waters than agreed 50 years ago under an international pact.

Mr Kull has calculated that the water level in the lake is almost half a metre lower than it should be. Official reports on the hydroelectric dam operations published for March and November last year show that water releases were almost twice their permitted rates, he says. The report is published by a US environmental lobby group, International Rivers Network.
guardian.co.uk