A TOTAL of sh500b has been allocated to the conservation of Lake Victoria.
The project was launched by the East African Community Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
It will strengthen the institutional capacity for managing shared water and fisheries resources among the five East African countries.
The programme will also focus on the prevention and control of pollution, watershed management, and project coordination and management.
The eight-year venture is funded by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the Swedish International Development Agency and contributions from member states.
In a statement to journalists last week, officials said the 7th Sectoral Council of Ministers of the Lake Victoria Basin launched the project at a meeting that opened on March 1.
The meeting also discussed food security and climate change, the statement said.
A total of 21 ministers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi attended. They toured facilities, including a sewerage treatment plant at the Tom Mboya Labour College and a port in Kisumu City in Kenya.
The project will be implemented in three phases, officials said. The first phase, which is underway, will be implemented in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and will run until 2013.
The second phase will be carried out in Burundi and Rwanda. It will be implemented later this year and run until 2017.
The third part of the project that will benefit Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, will run from from 2013 to 2017.
The East African Community Lake Victoria Basin Commission is a specialised institution responsible for coordinating the sustainable development of the lake.
