{UAH} Lake Victoria Serena Hotel breaks silence on water overflow at Club House

Water swept through the compound at a club house at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel

Lake Victoria Serena Hotel located in Kigo, Wakiso district is among the luxurious properties that have been hit by rising water levels at Lake Victoria.

On March 10, a one Tony Tibulya took a picture showing part of the hotel covered in water, sparking a debate on various social media platforms.

In a conversation with Tony Mugume, one of the managers at the hotel, which is owned by the Aga Khan, he told me it's not the first time the upmarket facility has been inundated with floods.

He said the incident is sporadic and they've always contained it.

"You know the water levels increase on Lake Victoria and that has affected quite a number of neighbors of… the lake… so we are also victims being closer to the water," Mugume said.

"… but what happens, when that water comes, we pump it back… to the lake and as we talk now it's back to normal… the parking is okay… it's back to normal."

A 2015 study conducted by the North Carolina State University's department of Marine, Earth and Atmosphere Sciences showed that water levels in Lake Victoria would continue rising due to climate change.

According to the study, the lake is advancing into the land around it by up to 10 metres per day.

While some locals believe it's the gods meting out punishments, the researchers from California say the surge in water is due to a back-flow.

Backflow is where the balance between the lake's outflow and the inflow is tipped, largely because of changing climate patterns, not just on the lake and the land around it but in the world beyond.

The resulting effect has seen several families displaced, some investors who had set up hang-out facilities are beaches, resorts are counting crucial losses.

At Lake Victoria Serena, Mugume says they have the means to fend off the waters.

"… the same measures that we've been using is what we'll continue using," he said by phone when I asked if he knew about the study.

"… because when it rises, it doesn't take so long, it goes back… It can rise let's say around 1pm… then by evening it has gone back… so when it comes, for us, we pump it back even before it goes down, and the situation returns to normal."

The inundation usually strikes the hotel's Club House.

This unit of the hotel houses a "pro-shop" for golfers, a restaurant, bar, conference halls, according to Mugume.

As the picture made circles on social media, some people wondered why National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) looks on as moneyed fellows degrade land.

Tony Mugume says the hotel is working within measures set up by the environment watchdog.

"… people can talk all sorts of things… but now the question would be… the property has lasted for 10 years… so where has NEMA been if we were in a wrong place?" he said.

"Where we are, we are okay, we are not encroaching in the water boundaries."

Meanwhile, Mugume says, for now, the hotel is closed as they couldn't sustain operations due to a slump in number of visitors because of the coronavirus lockdown.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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