Burundi joined the world on Thursday, March 26, 2020 to celebrate the International Day of Water and Wetlands, the ceremonies took place on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near Cape Town Beach under the theme: “Water and Climate Change”.

The administrative authorities and those of the Ministry responsible for the environment who were present began by uprooting the polluting grass called water hyacinth, which invaded the shores of this entity.

In his speech, the executive secretary of the Lake Tanganyika Authority (ALT) Sylvain Dusanga Mukanga said that the United Nations has put water and sustainable development as well as the implementation of related programs and projects on its 2018-2028 agenda.

As the theme chosen this year is water and climate change, Sylvain Dusanga Mukanga showed the damage caused by climate change, such as the floods that have affected Burundi, the drought and the pollution of the lake, which are aggravated by environmental degradation.

All this is caused by anthropogenic action such as deforestation, land exploitation and causes problems of management and rational use of water in the member countries of the ALT which are Burundi, DRC, Zambia and Tanzania, underlined the executive secretary of the ALT authority.

However, he said that most countries in the world suffer from a severe lack of fresh water but that the ALT countries have 17% of the world's fresh water reserves but that it is threatened with pollution.
Sylvain Dusanga Mukanga asks the countries bordering Lake Tanganyika to do everything possible to protect this common heritage of great importance for present and future generations.

UNICEF Representative Jeremy Hopkins said that 2 billion people in the world do not have access to water and if nothing is done this figure can rise to 4 billion in 2050, which could cause conflicts and instability at the state level.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock Emmanuel Ndorimana indicates that Burundi has a lot of fresh water sources but that they are not protected and are in danger of disappearing. He added that studies have shown that some groundwater tables are beginning to dry up.

It is in this context that the Ministry has issued an ordinance prohibiting the planting of trees that consume a lot of water and asks to replace them with indigenous species.

Emmanuel Ndorimana asks the population to protect the environment by reforesting open spaces, to dig level curves to retain rainwater, to protect the shores of lakes and rivers, especially since climate change is a reality in the destruction of infrastructure and human life in Burundi.