The Effect of the Litter on the Lake Shoreline, A Case of Rubondo Island National Park, Tanzania.

Gara, John Ignase (2018) The Effect of the Litter on the Lake Shoreline, A Case of Rubondo Island National Park, Tanzania. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

PDF - Submitted Version Download (1MB)

Abstract

Shoreline littering has been found to cause adverse impact on coastal environment, human health, fishing industry and navigation. Rubondo Island National Park is facing littering problem along the shorelines. However its spatial litter distribution along the shorelines and effects to the environment for a long time was not known. This study was conducted at Rubondo Island National Park to assess the spatial litter distribution along the shorelines. Specifically the study examined sources of shoreline litter, evaluated its distribution and finally assessed the effects of litter on lake shoreline environment. Both quantitative and qualitative research was used to obtain quantifiable information for shoreline litter. Four shorelines were purposely established namely Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western, four transects each having 100 meters length and 10 meters width were developed making a total of 16 transects in all sampled shorelines. On each transect, litters were collected, classified and quantified by weighing scale. Collected data were analyzed using graph pad tool box; IBM, SPSS and Microsoft excel computer software. Analyzed data were summarized through tables, graphs, and pie charts. Findings indicate that, fishing related activities was the major source of litter contributing 96.2% of all litter collected. Eastern shoreline of RINP received the largest amount of litter (68%) of all sampled shorelines. Plastics were the major component of all litter collected contributing 83.4%. Other components of litter were fishnets (8.4%), wood (5.0%), clothes (2.4%) and rubber (0.7%). On average, each transect recorded a total of 964 items of litter weighing 46,093.75g equivalent to 0.96 items/m2 (46.09g/m2). These litter deposited on the lake shores had a number of effects including causing death to various fauna found in RINP. Affected species included crocodiles, hippos, otters, fishes and birds mainly Cormorants, African fish eagles, and African darters. Various measures are suggested to deal with litter along RINP and within Lake Victoria. Suggested measures include; education campaign to fishermen from park adjacent communities, routine patrols and litter collection in different shorelines of Lake Victoria.

Actions (login required)

View Item