Abstract:

Ecological monitoring survey No. 17 (4th -13th September 2015) on the Upper Victoria Nile is the eighth one to be undertaken after completion of construction of Bujagali hydropower plant in February 2012. This 250 MW installation capacity plant was commissioned seven months later. During the post construction period, eight ecological monitoring surveys have so far been conducted at the original two sampling transects Kalange-Makwanzi and Buyala-Kikubamutwe and third one (mid-reservoir) established in the mid reach (30 m deep) of the new reservoir to track any developments/changes in the water environment and aquatic biota. The aforementioned surveys have followed from two pre-construction baseline surveys in (April 2000 and April 2006, and eight monitoring surveys (September 2007, April 2008, April 2009, October 2009, April 2010, September 2010, April 2011, September 2011) during construction phase.

Quarterly monitoring surveys were scaled down to biannual monitoring at an upstream and a downstream transect of the BHPP in 2009 to fast-track water quality determinants, biology and ecology of fishes and food webs, fish stock and fish catch including economic aspects of catch and sanitation/vector studies (bilharzias and river blindness). In the post-construction monitoring surveys, the assessments of algae, zooplankton and benthic macro-invertebrates which had been dropped since April 2008 were reverted to. This report presents observations made on these above-mentioned ecological aspects of the Upper Victoria Nile and draws comparisons of the present results with those made in the previous surveys at the three transects.