Abstract
The study was carried out on the Southern shore of Winam Gulf, Homa Bay County, Kenya. It was aimed at establishing the relationship among changes of Lake Victoria water levels, land use patterns and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical studies involving ground point survey was used to determine the extent of spread of the back flow and vertical rise of the lake’s waters from five pier and nine beach survey points between July 2019 to October 2020. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were also used to collect data which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Likert’s scale. The average variations of the extent of the back flow was approximately 294m while the vertical change in the water levels along the pier points was 1.03m. This led to submergence of the adjacent land use patterns and interfered with food security in the region. Coupled with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, majority (209) of the respondents substituted their meals and a quarter (79) of the them reduced their number of meals per day. A strong positive perception on the responses by the Government of Kenya and County Government Homa Bay towards addressing the pandemic with the Likert’s scale summative perception index of 381 very effective, 328 effective and 363 satisfactory were realized. The study recommends: observance and execution of environmental laws governing settlement on riparian lands, proactive compliance with the warnings and advice from the meteorological department, and adoption of alternative land use patterns.
Highlights
Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) is the latest global pandemic threatening the social, economic and political spheres of life
The study was carried out on the Southern shore of Winam Gulf, Homa Bay County, Kenya. It was aimed at establishing the relationship among changes of Lake Victoria water levels, land use patterns and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic
Recession of the waters of Lake Victoria has been beneficial to the local community through provision of more land for agriculture, sand excavation, settlement, grazing and papyrus reeds used for weaving mats (Obiero et al, 2012)
Summary
Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) is the latest global pandemic threatening the social, economic and political spheres of life. It was the same period that various lakes in the world experienced rise in their water levels causing flooding of their adjacent shoreline. Such lakes included the Great Lakes (Capital Weather Gang Analysis, 2019), Lake Kyoga, Albert and Victoria (NBI, 2020), Rift valley lakes of Kenya (Robi, 2020). The current back flow and flooding phenomena on the lake shores have reversed these gains and caused destruction of properties, loss of biodiversity and displacement of people in the region despite existence of environmental laws governing settlement on riparian lands. The need for ad vocation for adherence to laws governing settlement along the shoreline in order to reduce the impacts of damages caused by occurrence of such phenomena in future
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