List of bodies of water in Uganda

Overview of the most important watercourses in Uganda

Uganda is a relatively rainy and water-rich country in the area of the East African lake highlands.

Wildlife

Important food fish are the tilapia , the Nile perch , spiny catfish , gill catfish or mudfish , lungfish and the Lake Victoria sardine, which is valued as dried fish . Both the Nile tilapia and the Nile perch are native to Uganda ( Lake Albert , White Nile ) but have also been released in many Ugandan waters, where they have occupied the ecological niches of the species originally present there and displaced them. Especially the Nile perch (as Victoria perch in the food fish trade) is held responsible for the largest mass extinction of vertebrates in living memory, as it caused hundreds of cichlid species ( Haplochromis ) to disappear in Lake Victoria .

ecology

The introduction of non-native species such as the water hyacinth or the Nile perch have severely disrupted the relatively sensitive ecosystems of Uganda's waters. However, the clearing of the forests for firewood and charcoal production and, as a result, the washing out of the humus layers, also contributes to the eutrophication of the water, which results in severe water cloudiness, excessive algae growth and, in the worst case, oxygen-free zones on the lake bed. The use of pesticides in agriculture causes mass fish deaths in some lakes after heavy rainfall. The relatively frequent volcanic eruptions in the south-west of the country and the rain falling from the sulfur clouds lead to occasional massive fish deaths in nearby lakes.

List of lakes

List of rivers

Among the Ugandan waters, the Nile is of particular importance. Coming from Rwanda as Kagera , it touches the Ugandan border and then , coming again from Tanzania , flows into Lake Victoria shortly after the border . At Jinja it emerges from it again and continues on its way northwards as the Victoria Nile to Lake Kyoga . After exiting the lake to the border with South Sudan , he finally calls himself Albert Nile . Together with Lake Victoria, the Nile drains almost all of Uganda with the exception of the outer edges of the country in the east and west.