During the rainy season, the water level rose dramatically in Senegal, diluting the water of Lac Rose exploited for its salt. African countries are negotiating at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheik, a financial participation of rich countries, responsible for global warming.
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Lac Retba or Lac Rose is a salt lake, a coastal lagoon located near Dakar in Senegal, where around 3,000 families earn their living from salt mining. But because of the exceptional rains this year, the lake, twice as deep as usual, is less concentrated in salt. In total, nearly 7,000 tonnes of salt extracted by the operators were washed away, representing a financial loss of around 235,000 euros.
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And tourists are also missing out because with the salt which is further diluted, the lake is losing its pink color due to the presence of a micro-organism which normally develops a red pigment to resist the concentration of salt. And it is precisely for this color that tourists traveled there.
Added to this is the flooding of the village on the edge of the lake which found itself with its feet in the water. Maimouna Fedior, a shopkeeper, lost, for example, a large part of her goods which allowed her to pay for her children’s school and to buy food for them.
The residents of the lake also fear water pollution that could weaken this unique ecosystem which is increasingly attacked by galloping urbanization and the artificialization of the soil. The land is now waterproofed which means that in the event of heavy rains, the water flows in the cities, streets, and gas stations before flowing into the lake. In early October, during a visit by Environment Minister Alioune Ndoye, water samples were taken for quality analysis. The results have not yet been published.
But the consequences of global warming are at the heart of the negotiations at COP27, which is being held in Egypt. African countries like Senegal are calling for a fund to cover the damage caused by climate change of which they are the first victims even though they are only responsible for a very small part of CO2 emissions.