JOOUST set to construct iconic tower at Yala swamp

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, through VLIR-IUC Project, is now ready to set up an Eddy Covariance Tower  in the sleepy Yala Swamp along the beaches of Lake Victoria to help study the relationship between vegetation and the atmosphere.

 Not long ago, a group of subproject 1 team members and technologists from JOOUST conducted a community engagement? Something is missing here regarding the installation of the tower at Osieko beach where they met  a host of local leaders including the area chief who gladly received  the idea and thanked the University for considering their area.
 
The current ventures are  part of year 1 implementation activities through the subproject 1 of the Belgium sponsored VLIR-IUC project that focuses on impacting the community members living around the wetlands through manage Victoria Basin. The community expect to benefit directly and indirectly in the project by being involved in clearing the marked site for the construction of the tower.
The Swamp, sitting on approximately 175Km2 along the northeastern shores of Lake Victoria, is completely  consumed by a dense and stubborn papyrus vegetation. . It is largely fed by the floodwaters of the Nzoia and Yala rivers and partly by the backflow of water from Lake Victoria. The wetland lies on the border of  Siaya and Busia counties in Kenya and acts as a filter for the waters  flowing into Lake Victoria from two major rivers namely,  Yala  and Nzoia.
 
Moreover, Yala Swamp is home to the nationally  endangered Sitatunga antelope and other large mammals, numerous wetland birds (including the vulnerable Papyrus Yellow Warbler), and is a refuge for cichlid fish endemic to Lake Victoria that have become extinct in the main lake.
 
In addition, the swamp provides numerous essential ecosystem services and vital resources such as water, food, medicine and wood for over 250,000 people who inhabit its surroundings . The wetland, however, faces many threats, including increasing human population, over-exploitation of its natural resources by the competing local communities, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss.

With Eddy covariance, scientists can directly measure the exchange of various gases and energy between the atmosphere and the underlying surface.