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Biodiversity in Lake Victoria Faces Extinction Threat

A fisherman takes his boat out on Lake Victoria. (Reuters)
A fisherman takes his boat out on Lake Victoria. (Reuters)
    Nairobi, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Biodiversity in Lake Victoria Faces Extinction Threat

A fisherman takes his boat out on Lake Victoria. (Reuters)
A fisherman takes his boat out on Lake Victoria. (Reuters)

A new study published on Monday revealed that three quarters of freshwater species living in East Africa’s Lake Victoria basin face the threat of extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed that 76 percent of these creatures, including freshwater species like fish, mollusks, dragonflies, crabs and aquatic plants living in Victoria Lake and its surrounding, area are endangered.

The study noted that industry and agriculture have polluted the lake, and blamed over-fishing as well, the German News Agency reported.

Will Darwall, a co-author in the study, and head of the IUCN’s freshwater biodiversity unit said that the effects on communities that depend on the lake for their livelihoods could be disastrous.

According to the World Bank’s estimates, over 40 million people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda directly or indirectly rely on the lake.

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Toxic Cloud Forces 160,000 Spaniards to Stay Inside after Fire

A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
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Toxic Cloud Forces 160,000 Spaniards to Stay Inside after Fire

A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)

Around 160,000 people in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region were warned to stay inside on Saturday after a fire at an industrial estate caused a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area, emergency services said.

The blaze at a swimming pool cleaning products company started at 2.20 a.m. (0020 GMT) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of Barcelona and caused a huge plume of chlorine smoke over the area.

"If you are in the zone that is affected do not leave your home or your place of work," the Civil Protection service said on social media site X.

No one has been hurt in the fire, Catalan emergency services said on Saturday, but residents in five towns were sent a message on their mobile phones telling them to remain inside.

"It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out," the owner of the industrial property, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1.

He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery.

Trains which were due to pass through the area were held up, roads were blocked and other events were cancelled.

The fire was under control, Civil Protection spokesperson Joan Ramon Cabello told the TVE television channel.