The Uganda Atlas

Water Resources

NEMA 2008

NEMA 2005

NEMA 2006

A degraded lake-shore catchment zone on Lake Albert, Nebbi District (2006)

U ganda is well endowed with water resources which consist of open water bodies (lakes and rivers), wetlands, groundwater, and rain water. Of the 241,500 km 2 total area of the country, fresh water lakes occupy 36,280 km 2 (15%), while 5,180 km 2 (2.2%) are covered by permanent wetlands. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Uganda and the world’s second largest fresh water lake. Several lakes are shared between Uganda and the neighbouring countries, while others are entirely located within the country. This water is used in several ways: domestic consumption in rural and urban areas, for industry, agriculture, wildlife, transport and power generation. In addition, the open water bodies and wetlands are home to rich biodiversity including fisheries resources. Furthermore, wetlands which occupy the transition between open water bodies and terrestrial eco-systems perform important regulatory functions such as filtration of pollutants from the mainland. Water resources in Uganda are maintained through a dynamic balance between precipitation, evaporation and evapo-transpiration from open water, swamps and land in general. For example, of the estimated 118 billion cubic metres of water entering Lake Victoria from rivers and streams, 94.5 billion cubic metres (80%) evaporates, leaving only 23.5 cubic metres (20%) to flow into River Nile. The actual evaporation ranges from 45% in dry areas to about 92% in humid areas.

NEMA 2006

Simwondwa 2006

Children at a hand-wash safe water point, Kamuli District (2006)

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