Standing on the shores of Lake Retba in Senegal, better known as Lake Rose because of the color of its waters, Maguette Ndiour points to a mound of 200 tons of salt that men are slowly pouring into sacks in the sweltering heat of midday.
“It’s the only one we were able to save as the waters rose,” explains Mr. Ndiour, president of the cooperative of salt operators from Lac Rose, who is worried regarding having to suspend his activity for several years.
In two months, the operators will have sold all the salt extracted from this lake located regarding forty kilometers from Dakar, separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow sand dune, and known internationally for the pink color it takes on some times of the year.
The reason: the spectacular rise in water levels during this year’s rainy season, from June to October, when floods were frequent. The lake today has a depth of six meters once morest two to three usually, underlines the local environmental activist Ibrahima Khalil Mbaye. The salt is therefore highly diluted and new pollution might destroy this fragile ecosystem, he is alarmed.
According to Ousmane Ndiaye, director of meteorology at the National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology, “the rains were exceptional” both in terms of daily intensity and duration.
– Financial blow –
The sudden increase in the volume of water from the lake in August carried away some 7,000 tons of salt already extracted, which represents a financial loss of around 235,000 dollars, assures Maguette Ndiour, while 3,000 families in the region earn their living thanks to in the extraction of salt.
Now that the depth has increased, it is impossible to extract the salt traditionally, that is to say to fill a bucket while standing on the lake. And most men can’t swim.
The salinity of the lake has also decreased significantly with the abundant rainwater. Bad news for tourism, because “with less salt, the lake will lose its pink color” due to the presence of a microorganism that develops a red pigment to resist the concentration of salt and the sun, says Mr. Mbaye.
This is what Julien Heim, a 21-year-old French tourist, has just arrived from a small boat trip on the lake. “It was cool, but there are no more terraces on the banks and the lake is not pink”, he underlines.
A few meters away, in the lakeside village, Maimouna Fedior, a mother of four, lost much of her merchandise – paintings, masks and wooden trinkets – when the waters flooded her shop.
She had to find another space inland and hopes for state aid.
“We only know tourism,” she told AFP. “Me, I’ve been here for 30 years. My children, I pay for their school with that, I feed them with that,” she says, annoyed.
– Urbanisation –
For Ousmane Ndiaye, Senegal’s national focal point for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the “intense nature” of rainfall this year is consistent with IPCC findings on an increase in extreme weather events.
“The direct cause and effect relationship would scientifically require a separate study (…) but we can say that it is a probable manifestation of climate change,” he told AFP.
In addition to the fall in economic activity, residents of the lake fear water pollution.
According to Mamadou Alpha Sidibe, director of flood prevention and management at the Ministry of Water, the floods were triggered by heavy rains but were aggravated by rampant urbanization that began in the 2000s and ” the artificialization of the soil” which resulted from it.
The land is now partially or even totally waterproofed and, in the event of heavy rains, the water flows in the cities until it empties into the lake.
“This water crossed streets, alleys, gas stations… Everything mixed together before entering the lake, which is choking,” says Ibrahima Khalil Mbaye indignantly.
At the beginning of October, the Minister of the Environment, Alioune Ndoye, went to Lac Rose for a visit. Water samples were taken for quality analysis. The results have not yet been published.
