The Blue Economy describes the sustainable use and conservation of aquatic resources in both marine and freshwater environments. This includes oceans and seas, coastlines and banks, lakes, rivers and groundwater.
It comprises activities that exploit aquatic resources (fisheries, mining, petroleum, biotechnologies, etc.) or use aquatic environments (maritime transport, coastal tourism, etc.), once they are done in an integrated, fair and circular manner. These activities help to improve the health of aquatic ecosystems by establishing protective and restorative measures.
Both of the great lakes, Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika, and ultimately, the White Nile depend on the regional catchments referred to as Water Towers of the region. The Water Towers of eastern Africa are a collection of mountain ecosystems and associated river basins. These areas have a major influence on regional hydrology and global climatic cycles.
The majority of the main water towers in the region are under very serious threat and several are severely degraded; the threats are anthropogenic in nature. Many of the forests have been cleared extensively mainly for agricultural purposes and human settlements and face additional pressure from surrounding human settlements.
The role of freshwater resources, marine ecosystems and wetlands in accomplishing the needed socio-economic development goals is widely recognized in EAC region. However, water insecurity is one of the major socio-economic problems that undermine the regional efforts in improving the quality of life of the people.
On the face of it, water should not be such a constraint to development as the region is endowed with vast and abundant water resources.
