By 2024, ice remained on Speke, but not enough to be defined as a glacier. The three highest peaks in the Rwenzori mountains – Speke, Baker and Stanley – have been so eroded by the climate crisis that only Stanley’s glacier remains.

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The path to ascend the Rwenzori runs past Lake Bujuku, one of several lakes partly formed and replenished by glacial meltwater. The mountain range is the highest and most permanent source of the River Nile, with a water catchment relied upon by 5 million people, including the Bakonzo.

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Mount Stanley holds the last glacial ice in Rwenzori, but the glaciers are fragmenting. This image was taken by Klaus Thymann in 2022

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By 2024 the glacier on Mount Stanley has retreated. Project Pressure’s data revealed a loss in surface area of 29.5% between 2020 and 2024

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A channel carrying water to communities in the foothills of the Rwenzori. Glaciers act as a buffer – feeding rivers during dry seasons and regulating water flow. Their loss increases droughts, floods and even wildfires.

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The next generation of Bakonzo people will be profoundly impacted by the loss of glaciers. Masereka says: ‘I will tell my son it was very beautiful to have snow on the Rwenzori for our livelihood … it will be unfortunate, but I will encourage him to involve himself in conservation-related activities as an alternative to the snow, which was our resource in our time’

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