Leave Lake Natron to the flamingos and posterity

BY EDITOR

1st December 2013

Editorial Cartoon

Plans to mine soda ash at Lake Natron have suffered another well deserved setback, with a new study showing that such activity would “almost certainly” wipe out the Lesser Flamingo population. 

 

We say it’s a well deserved setback because mining soda ash at that world class nature reserve shouldn’t cross the minds of those who know what this unique ecosystem means to Tanzania; it’s best left to the flamingos  and for the country’s posterity. This is a salt lake located to the north of this country, close to the Kenyan border in the eastern branch of the East African Rift, and is fed by a major river, the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River and also by mineral-rich hot springs. 

 

It is quite shallow, less than three metres (9.8 ft) deep, and varies in width depending on its water level, which changes due to high levels of evaporation, leaving behind a mixture of salts and minerals called natron. The surrounding country is dry and receives irregular seasonal rainfall.

 

The lake falls within the Lake Natron Basin Wetlands of International Importance; it is listed as a Ramsar Site, which means this country has a duty to preserve it not just a vital resource to this nation but also as part of the world’s global commons.

 

Lake Natron in Tanzania is one of the most serene lakes in Africa, but it's also the source of what one writer described as some of the “most phantasmagorical photographs ever captured - images that look as though living animals had instantly turned to stone.” 

 

To paraphrase, these are, of course images you only see in a dream; and the lake is, indeed, a dream resource we shouldn’t allow the starry eyed people we call investors to meddle around with it.

 

Lake Natron's alkaline waters support a thriving ecosystem of salt marshes, freshwater wetlands, flamingos and other wetland birds, tilapia and the algae on which large flocks of flamingos feed. 

 

There’s yet more to learn from this unique ecosystem, as demonstrated in a book titled, “Across the Ravaged Land” by photographer Nick Brandt.

 

Brandt is reported to have discovered the remains of flamingos and other animals with chalky sodium carbonate deposits outlining their bodies in sharp relief. No one knows for certain exactly how they die, he reports. 

 

During breeding season, more than two million lesser flamingos (Phoenicopterus minor) use the shallow lake as their primary breeding ground in Africa where they build their nests on small islands that form in the lake during the dry season.

 

Lake Natron is one of two alkaline lakes in this part East Africa; the other is Lake Bahi. Both are terminal lakes that do not drain out to any river or sea; they are fed by hot springs and small rivers. As shallow lakes in a hot climate, any external threats could be truly perilous to its unique life forms.

 

At once time, the serenity of Lake Natron  and its flamingo population  were threatened by a proposed hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River, the main river feeding the lake.

 

And now, our famed National Development Corporation (NDC) is wooing some Indian investors to put up a soda ash plant. With a new study warning of irreparable damage to the environment, we only hope that wisdom will prevail.

 

As isolated as the lake is - and the West didn’t “discover” it until 1954  we still have precious little in place to protect the lake itself, leave alone its threatened flamingo population.

 

It’s time to think environment, to think about the future; current account surpluses are everything!

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY