Study of transport of nutrients in natural wetlands: a case of nutrients removal processes in the Kagondo wetlands, Bukoba.

The shoreline of Lake Victoria is extensively indented and covered with natural wetlands, which in one way or another play an important role in functioning of the Lake. The increased release and loading of industrial, municipal wastes and agro-chemicals from agricultural areas into surface waters and wetlands has raised the question of buffering capacity of these wetland systems. It is estimated that approximately fifty percent of the total wetlands in the Lake Victoria basin are significant in terms of cleansing input flour into the Lake. This is because these wetlands are located at the 'rivers' inlet points to the Lake, which leads to protection of the Lake from direct inputs of pollution and thus reducing the eutrophication process. However, buffering processes in wetlands around Lake Victoria basin are poorly understood, but have been recognized as playing an important role in buffering inputs from the basin surface waters into the Lake, the case which is not only true for Lake Victoria basin, but also for all wetlands in the tropical areas. This study involved an experimental part performed during the fieldwork, and partly modeling of wetland processes within the wetland system, as regards to the buffering of nutrients. Modeling was done using the DUFLOW simulation package which is a package for simulating one dimensional flow and water quality. The study also uses the existing data from Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP) - Wetland Component, that were collected in the year 2000. It is expected that, this dissertation is going to provide useful guide to research works on various processes taking place in natural wetlands particularly nutrients removal processes. This applies to developing countries where similar kind of problems is experienced especially in tropical areas.