Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake, is shared by which three countries?

Lake Victoria lies in East Africa and is shared by three countries: Tanzania (about 49 per cent of its area), Uganda (about 45 per cent) and Kenya (about 6 per cent).

Key facts about Lake Victoria:

• It covers about 68,800 square kilometres, making it the largest lake in Africa and the largest tropical lake in the world.
• It is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, after Lake Superior.
• It is relatively shallow, with a maximum depth of about 80 metres.
• It lies in a shallow basin on a plateau between the western and eastern branches of the Great Rift Valley; unlike Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, it is not a deep rift lake.
• It contains more than 80 islands, including the Ssese Islands in Uganda.

It is the main reservoir of the White Nile. The Nile leaves the lake near Jinja in Uganda, where the Owen Falls (Nalubaale) Dam now stands.

History of its name:

The British explorer John Hanning Speke reached the lake in 1858 and named it after Queen Victoria. He correctly identified it as a source of the Nile.

Important cities on its shores:

Kampala and Entebbe (Uganda), Kisumu (Kenya), and Mwanza and Bukoba (Tanzania).

Ecological problems:

• The Nile perch, introduced in the 1950s for fishing, led to the extinction of many native cichlid fish species.
• Water hyacinth, an invasive weed, has at times covered large parts of the lake.
• Pollution and overfishing also threaten the lake.

Other great lakes of Africa:

• Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world and the second deepest.
• Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) is known for its many species of cichlid fish.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia share no such lake; Lake Turkana lies in Kenya and Ethiopia.
• ✗Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique lie farther south, near Lake Malawi.
• ✗Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo border Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika.