BUJUMBURA — The squeal of passing bikes fills the air in the center of a newly created wetland on the outskirts of Burundi’s main city and largest urban settlement on Lake Tanganyika, the resources of which the country shares with Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia.

A step away from this landscape of houses submerged by the lake, and with palm trees shooting high into the sky, a boy stands on a perch with a fishing rod. Despite the scorching sun overhead, he slowly fills a plastic bucket with small fish.