Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center Commits 100,000 Litres to Protect Lake Tana

Bahir Dar | June 2026 – The Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center today announces a commitment to fund the removal of 100,000 litres of plastic waste and waterborne debris from Lake Tana, Ethiopia, as part of the Center’s one-million-litre global conservation campaign. Lake Tana is Ethiopia’s largest lake, accounting for approximately 50 per cent of all inland water in the country, and is the source of the Blue Nile — the river that supplies approximately 85 per cent of the Nile’s total water volume and flows north through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2015 and encompassing 695,885 hectares, Lake Tana is home to 67 fish species of which approximately 70 per cent are endemic to the region, 217 bird species, and populations of hippopotamus. Twenty-seven of its 37 islands are home to ancient monasteries and churches dating from the 13th century, making it the spiritual and cultural heart of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. That lake is now turning green.