A Kenyan Professor working at the Department of Geography, Bowling Green State University, in the United States has been hailed for his extensive research on Lake Victoria.
Kefa Otiso is among an elite group of Kenyans who have been awarded the Elder of Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) due to his research and contribution to saving the lake.
The Professor is accomplished in geographic research on urban and economic geography, development, globalization, immigration, and Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics (GIS) applications.
He has focused his research on the context of Africa and North America.
Otiso was a recipient of the US Department of State, Mandela Washington Fellowship, Ksh17,793,000 Bowling Green State University Mandela - Washington Fellowship Institute on Civic Leadership grant.
However, his current research on Lake Victoria has been hailed for its prospects to bring a significant shift due to the awareness he is raising.
Together with researchers from Bowling Green State University, they are using multiple scientific disciplines to compare and contrast toxic algae’s effects, both locally and abroad.
The investigators pursued to establish universal rules for algal blooms, especially in Lake Victoria where Otiso found that a water source was threatened by the toxic plant.
Otiso explained that this is a complex societal problem that requires wide-ranging research to come up with a solution before it is too late.
The analysis of Lake Victoria helped the team from Bowling Green State University explore the socio-economic and public policy side of harmful algal blooms.
“These problems have become quite big. They are essentially systemic problems,” Otiso noted.
“Even if we found out, for example, that agriculture or sewage from cities is contributing to algal blooms, the solution is not as easy as telling people not to farm or telling cities not to discharge sewage in rivers or lakes. You end up having so many dimensions to actually fix the problem," he added.
Otiso has considerably studied urban and economic issues, particularly as they relate to the development of African countries.
He noted that water touches every area of society, and consequently offers a striking challenge when battling harmful algal blooms.
“You need a lot of moving parts at the same time to address the issue. You are dealing with water-quality issues, but you are also dealing with fisheries, which are very important," he explained.
"So there is the economic dimension, there is the food dimension and people, of course, need water to drink, yet waste from cities and agricultural runoff are polluting these same drinking water sources.”
According to water experts, harmful algal blooms occur when toxin-producing algae grow unduly in a body of water.
Algae are microscopic organisms that live in aquatic environments and use photosynthesis to produce energy from sunlight, just like plants. Some produce dangerous toxins in fresh or marine water.
