Lake Opeta

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Lake Opeta
Kyoga Lake Complex OSM.jpg
Kyoga Lake Complex with the Opeta (right)
Uganda relief map.svg
Red pog.svg
Lake Opeta
Location Nakapiripirit, Sironko, Katakwi, Kumi
Coordinates 1°42′0″N34°14′0″E / 1.70000°N 34.23333°E / 1.70000; 34.23333 Coordinates: 1°42′0″N34°14′0″E / 1.70000°N 34.23333°E / 1.70000; 34.23333
Primary outflows Lake Bisina
Basin  countriesUganda
Surface area68,912 hectares (170,290 acres)
Surface elevation1,050 metres (3,440 ft)
Islands Tisai
Official nameLake Opeta Wetland System
Designated15 September 2006
Reference no.1636 [1]

Lake Opeta is a lake with an extensive wetland system in Uganda.

Contents

The wetland lies south of the Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve and serves as a dry-season refuge for both wildlife from the park and domestic cattle of the surrounding Karamajong and Pokot people. Lake Opeta is a small lake in the middle of the swamp, covered by water-lilies Nymphaea with a thin fringe of papyrus Cyperus papyrus on the eastern side. There is a wooded island in the middle of the swamp called the Tisai, where a few people live. The area is mainly used by the Karamojong and Pokot people for grazing their cattle in the dry season.

Lake Opeta’s  surrounding swamp falls in four Districts; it is the only significant wetland in the Karamoja area, and one of the few remaining intact marshes in Uganda. The Important Bird Area (IBA) covers Lake Opeta itself and the surrounding marsh from Lake Bisina in the west, bordering East Teso Controlled Hunting Area in the north, Pian-Upe Wildlife Reserve in the east, and covering the seasonal grassland indicated as Lake Okolitorom on maps. The IBA is predominantly an extensive swamp of Miscanthus to the east and south, merging into dry Hyparrhenia grass savannas. [2]

Hydrology

Lake Opeta is primarily fed by rainfall on Mount Elgon and drains into Lake Kyoga via Lake Bisina. It is surrounded by an extensive swamp and floodplain domestically sustainable for fishing and rearing cattle. [3]

Conservation

Lake Opeta is one of Uganda's 33 Important Bird Areas and since 2006 a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance.

A Biodiversity and Eco-Tourism Centre funded by the Global Environmental Facility and UNDP serves the lake.

Lake Opeta [4] and its surrounding swamps are located in eastern Uganda, 25 km north-east of Kumi town and the northern part borders a Wildlife Reserve, Pian-Upe Wildlife Reserve and Teso Community Reserve. Lake Opeta and its surrounding swamps are located in north eastern Uganda, in four districts of Nakapiripirit (Namalu sub-county and Lorachat sub-county), Sironko (Bunambutye sub-county), Katakwi (Usuku county, Magoro sub-county) and Kumi (Kolir sub-county, Malera sub-county and Ongino sub-county).  The Ramsar site stands 1,050 m above sea level and covers an area of 68,913 hectares. The wetland system represents the easternmost part of the Lake Kyoga basin. It occupies an extensive floodplain between the Lake Bisina Ramsar Site (which it drains towards Lake Kyoga) to the west and the base of Mount Elgon, a massive extinct volcanic massif, to the south-east. The Lake Opeta wetlands marks the southern limits of the vast, arid region of Karamoja which extends along Uganda's eastern flank between Mount Elgon and the distant Sudan border, nearly 300 km to the north.Lake Opeta is one of Uganda's 33 Important Bird Areas and since 2006 a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance. [2]

A Biodiversity and Eco-Tourism Centre funded by the Global Environmental Facility and UNDP serves the lake. [5]

Lake Opeta and its surrounding swamps are located in eastern Uganda, 25 km north-east of Kumi town. The Ramsar site stands 1,050 m above sea level and covers an area of 68,913 hectares. The wetland system represents the easternmost part of the Lake Kyoga basin. It occupies an extensive floodplain between the Lake Bisina Ramsar Site (which it drains towards Lake Kyoga) to the west and the base of Mount Elgon, a massive extinct volcanic massif, to the south-east. The Lake Opeta wetlands marks the southern limits of the vast, arid region of Karamoja which extends along Uganda's eastern flank between Mount Elgon and the distant Sudan border, nearly 300 km to the north. [6]

Birds

Fox's weaver, Uganda's only endemic bird species, is known to inhabit the wetland, [2] as do the globally threatened vulnerable shoebill, near-threatened papyrus gonolek, and 160 other species. [3]

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References

  1. "Lake Opeta Wetland System". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. "The Annotated Ramsar List: Uganda". Archived from the original on 7 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  3. 1 2 Byaruhanga, Achilles; Kigolo, Stephen (2005). Lake Opeta Wetland System Ramsar Information Sheet (PDF). Kampala.
  4. Cafema, S. (January 2010), "Wilderness safaris.", Conservation tourism, UK: CABI, pp. 32–43, retrieved 2023-04-23
  5. International Union for Conservation of Nature. "Commissioned in the Lake Opeta Ramsar Site" . Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  6. Petridis, D.; Sinis, A. (1997), "The benthic fauna of Lake Mikri Prespa", Lake Prespa, Northwestern Greece, Springer Netherlands, pp. 95–105, doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5180-1_7, ISBN   978-94-010-6179-7