Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria lies in East Africa, mainly within Tanzania and Uganda, with Kenya along its northeastern shore. At roughly 69,000 square kilometres, it is the continent's largest lake by surface area and the world's second-largest freshwater lake by that measure, after Lake Superior. Its waters occupy a relatively shallow basin on the plateau between the Western and Eastern Rift Valleys. The lake's shoreline is irregular and includes gulfs, islands, wetlands, and reef-studded areas.

Rivers and rainfall supply Lake Victoria. The Kagera, entering from the west, is its largest tributary. Water leaves the lake through a single outlet on the northern shore: the Victoria Nile, which continues the lake's connection to the larger Nile basin. The lake therefore acts as a major reservoir in the upper Nile system, while its level can change with rainfall and other hydrological conditions. In 2021, NASA satellite observations recorded unusually high levels after months of intense rain; flooding affected lakeshore farmland and settlements.

Lake Victoria contains diverse aquatic habitats and more than 200 fish species. Tilapia is among its economically important fish, and fishing has long supported food supplies and livelihoods around the shoreline. The expansion of the introduced Nile perch transformed the lake's fishery. A Food and Agriculture Organization review described its effects as mixed: the fishery brought economic and food benefits, while also raising ecological, sustainability, and distributional concerns. That history cautions against treating a change in catches as an uncomplicated measure of ecological health.

The lake is shared by three countries and is important for fisheries, water use, transport, and hydropower. Dams at the Victoria Nile outlet near Jinja generate electricity, and settlements and productive land cluster along parts of the shore. The ecosystem faces pressures that include pollution, overfishing, wetland degradation, and invasive species such as water hyacinth. These pressures cross national borders, making coordinated management of the lake and its wider basin important.