Africa’s lakes are drying with hopes of a food-secure future

At the break of dawn, 28-year-old Linder Atieno lifts the metal shutters of her fish stall at Kisumu’s Kibuye market, hoping for a miracle that rarely comes.

Once a beehive of activity, the market, just a few kilometres from the shores of Lake Victoria, is now a pale shadow of its former self. The air that once buzzed with haggling and the scent of fresh tilapia now carries a hollow quiet.

“Three years ago, I’d fill two crates before breakfast,” she recalls, carefully arranging seven small fish in a basin.

“Now, I’m lucky to fill even one by sunset.”

Atieno’s story echoes across lakeshores and riverbanks from Kenya to Burkina Faso, from the Congo Basin to the Zambezi Delta. Africa’s rivers and lakes are vanishing and taking with them not just fish, but food, livelihoods and a way of life.

A new report by WWF titled Africa’s Forgotten Fishes, released during the Ramsar COP15 Wetlands Summit in Harare, lays bare the scale of the crisis: one in four freshwater fish species in Africa is at risk of extinction.

Fish catches on Zambia’s floodplain have collapsed by 90 per cent. In Lake Malawi, the iconic chambo tilapia has seen a 94 per cent population drop. Overall, 26 percent of assessed freshwater species across the continent face extinction.

“This is a silent emergency,” warns Eric Oyare, WWF’s freshwater lead for Africa, “We’re not just talking about biodiversity loss—we’re talking about the unravelling of economies and food systems.”

Africa’s freshwater fish catch is among the highest per capita globally, 2.56 kilogrammes per person annually, outpacing even Asia. Yet, countries like Kenya are beginning to see sharp declines.

Dire situation

While Kenya’s inland fisheries account for roughly two-thirds of national fish production, its 2023 capture stood at just 120,000 metric tonnes, paling in comparison to Tanzania at 300,000 and Uganda (400,000).

Even as Kenya ranks among the top five in Africa for freshwater aquaculture (mostly tilapia and catfish), it lags its neighbours in wild catch productivity.

Lake Victoria remains Kenya’s crown jewel, producing over 86,000 metric tonnes annually. Yet pollution, overfishing, climate change, and invasive species are rapidly degrading its once-abundant waters.

In Kisumu, environmental advocate Miriam Kinuthia decries the unchecked pollution pouring into the lake.

“We are poisoning our future,” she says, adding that if no action is taken now, we risk turning Lake Victoria into a graveyard.

For a longtime fisherman like Hesbon Otieno in Homa Bay, the situation is already dire. Otieno has fished in the lake’s waters for two decades, but now struggles to even feed his family.

“If the fish disappear, what becomes of us?” he says, eyes scanning the shrinking shoreline.

Across Africa, freshwater fish are not only a vital source of affordable protein, but also a lifeline for rural economies.

In West Africa, smoked catfish drives cross-border trade, often run by women. In Burkina Faso and Niger, sun-dried minnows replace meat in low-income diets while in the Congo Basin, rivers serve as highways, grocery stores, and spiritual landmarks.

“These species are embedded in the cultural and economic fabric of African life,” says Machaya Chomba of The Nature Conservancy.

“Their loss isn’t just ecological—it’s existential.”

The WWF report doesn’t just ring alarm bells; it offers a six-point Emergency Recovery Plan, including restoration of natural river flows, improving water quality, protecting key habitats and species, curbing unsustainable fishing practices, managing invasive species and removing obsolete dams

These measures aren’t pipe dreams. In Namibia and Zambia, co-managed fishing zones and seasonal bans have already helped fish populations rebound.

Twenty African nations have also signed on to the Freshwater Challenge, a global pledge to restore 300,000 kilometres of degraded rivers and wetlands.

Still, implementation gaps remain. WWF’s Food Futures Lead, Nancy Rapando acknowledges this, noting that policy is the easy part.

“What’s missing is enforcement, political will and funding. We must put rivers and lakes at the heart of Africa’s development strategy,” she says.

The Ramsar COP15 summit in Harare, which closed yesterday, is seen as a make-or-break moment for freshwater conservation.

Key goals under discussion include: the 30×30 Target: Protecting 30 per cent of inland waters by 2030, national budgets for freshwater restoration, community-based conservation integration and bans on illegal gear and destructive damming

For vendors like Atieno, the summit’s outcomes are not abstract; they’re personal.

“We used to say, ‘As long as the lake is here, we’ll eat,’” she reflects. “Now, I’m not so sure.”

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