The Sh800 million Nakuru Sewage Rehabilitation and Extension Project was designed to reduce the biological oxygen demand (BOD) concentration from 500 milligrams per litre to 10mg/l in the effluent for the final stage to Lake Nakuru. Large quantities of silt is now being swept in from the forests excised in recent years to create human settlements. He cautioned that the lake, the first in Kenya to be listed as a Ramsar site, is threatened by pollution and unprecedented deforestation of the catchment basin. He said during a seminar on Environmental Education and Religion held at the KWS education centre recently that Lake Nakuru National Park - a wetland of international importance - had 250 species of birds, 50 different species of mammals and 350 species of plants. Mr Daniel Koros of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) confirms a report by another WWF researcher, Mr Jackson Raini, that traces of heavy metals have been discovered in water sources in Nakuru. The wastes are also not classified, nor dumped at designated sections as required. It is suspected that leaching could be taking place at the dump because the wastes are not compacted. The park management can do little about the Nakuru Municipal Dump, located on a faultline on the lower slopes of Menengai Hill. While the Lake Nakuru National Park warden, Ms Catherine Wekesa, and her team say they are doing their best to protect flora and fauna at the park, the problems threatening the park are coming from without. Dr Motelin said two toxic alga-microcystis and anabena had also been discovered in the flamingo feeding sites. This is partly because it is not located next to an urban area.īut organo-chlorines can enter the lake through River Sandai, which passes through farmlands in Laikipia district. The 290 square kilometre Lake Bogoria is a comparatively clean habitat.
Lake Bogoria is about 104 kilometres from Nakuru town (by road) but the flamingoes' flight covers about 60 kilometres. The question now is, why did the birds succumb to flight stress at Lake Bogoria and not at Lake Nakuru? Organo-chlorines find their way into Nakuru water systems from nearby farms which use large quantities of fertilizers, pesticides and agro-chemicals. (among birds which had ingested toxic chemicals at Lake Nakuru). There are multiple problems but the stress of flying was identified as one of the major causes of deaths. The don said that during the 1993/95 period, most deaths at Lake Bogoria occurred at landing sites. These include other blue-green algae and diatoms. Some of their feeding sites in Ethiopia are close to factories, which could be discharging harmful effluent," he said.ĭr Motelin said the lesser flamingo (dominant in Rift Valley lakes) also ingest and digest other micro-organisms that grow in saline waters. Toxic chemicals such as DDT, which is banned in Kenya, is reportedly used in Ethiopia. Other conservationists argue that it was possible that flamingoes ingested contaminants within lakes in other countries. Dr Motelin said the flamingoes must have ingested the chemicals at Lake Nakuru. Traces of organo-chlorines were also discovered in body tissues. However, there are fears that pollutants are finding their way into the lake's waters.ĭr Gedion Motelin of the Department of Animal Health, Egerton University, told the Nation that tests carried out on dead flamingoes in 1993/95 at Lake Bogoria revealed traces of heavy metals, including lead, chromium, arsenic and mercury. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Director, Mr Nehemiah Rotich, told reporters that the 188 square kilometre park is now one of the leading parks in income generation. The Lake Nakuru National Park, with its rhino sanctuary and a large species of birds and terrestrial animals, is the place tourists should be heading. The waters sustain heavy algal blooms of spirulina platensis - the blue-green algae on which lesser flamingoes feed. About a million flamingoes, the highest number in recent times, are currently residing on the shores of Lake Nakuru, forming a glorious mass of pink against the brackish waters. The good news is that adult flamingoes are building nests and laying eggs at Lake Nakuru for the first time in 65 years. But scores of them are unable to fly, providing easy prey to marabou storks. Thousands of newly-hatched flamingo chicks are landing at Lake Bogoria from Lake Natron in Tanzania where successful breeding takes place continually.
The Nation (Nairobi,Kenya) Michael Njuguna
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