Kazinga Channel

Kazinga Channel is situated northeast of the Commonwealth Game reserve, Queen Elizabeth National Park, extending 35 kilometers from Lake Edward in the north to Lake George in the south. Lake Edward is a freshwater lake with merely 9 kilometers in width, whilst Lake George has a width of only 4 kilometers between Ijumu Point in the west and Ntungamo Peninsula. The waterway constitutes the jersey neck between the two lakes, with an elevation of 910 meters above sea level at Lake Edward, decreasing slightly to 910 meters at Lake George, and ultimately tapering to zero at the exit of Lake George. The waterway is firmly embedded into the rift valley walls that rise at Nyakasura Hill to the west, and Dejebe Hills and Ngogomweme Hill to the east.

Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) is the second largest national park in Uganda, encompassing an area of 1,978 square kilometers. It is situated in western Uganda, spanning the districts of Kasese, Bushenyi, Rukungiri, and Kamwenge. The park was founded in 1952 and designated to preserve the wide savannah of the Kazinga Channel. The park is named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II and is recognized for its diverse wildlife, which includes Uganda kob, hippopotami, African buffalo, African bush elephants, lions, and leopards. The park’s area encompasses Lake Edward, covering around 40 km² adjacent to the Congo border.

The park is among the most frequented parks in Uganda. In 1960, the Kazinga Channel was designated a Ramsar wetland and traverses a section of the park. This region is characterized by habitats such as mongooses, hippopotamuses, marshy flora, wooded vegetation, solonchaks, and bromeliad-dense vegetation. The region is recognized as a sanctuary for ornithologists and fishermen. The park is most conveniently accessed from Kampala via an all-season route through Mbarara, which is also reachable from the Water. The notable attributes of QENP encompass the chimpanzee refuge located in Kyambura Gorge and the Maramagambo Forest. The park also include Kasenyi Plain, Kyambura River, Lake Edward, Lake George, Ishasha River, Ishasha Plains, and the equator crossing.

The Kazinga Channel serves multiple purposes, notably as one of the most frequented and reputable tourist attractions in Uganda. The distribution of wildlife inside the Park, determined by feeding habit areas, facilitates the observation of vast gatherings of hippos, crocodiles, and numerous bird species, including diverse waterfowl. It provides the primary tourist attraction of boat rides to observe substantial populations of hippos, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo, numerous antelopes, monitor lizards, and a diverse array of aquatic and woodland avifauna, among others.

The Kazinga Channel poses a lesser threat to Uganda, notably to Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), which has experienced flooding issues for decades. This natural marvel of Uganda is an overflow located in the southwestern region of the country. The Kazinga Channel enhances landscape diversity within the predominantly uniform land-use patterns present in and surrounding QENP. The Kazinga Channel serves as a crucial sink for the MVNP elephants and presents opportunities for five megafauna corridors between the two national parks: at Maramagambo Forest (eastern side of the channel), at Lake Edward (western side of the channel), the Kazinga Channel (linking the western and eastern sides of the park), King George (central region), and the Kafue River basin (southern side of the park).