Patty Magubira
6 May 2008
Nairobi — East African environmental activists are up in arms over the establishment of a soda ash plant at Lake Natron, Tanzania.
The lake, partly shared by Tanzania and Kenya, is the world's most important breeding site for lesser flamingos and is the only site in East Africa where they regularly and successfully nest.
Between 1.5 and 2.5 million of the lesser flamingos, 75 per cent of the bird's world population, is hatched at the lake.
The activists argue that activities at the proposed plant, the presence of human beings and vehicles would destroy the breeding site for the flamingos.
"Changes in volumes and chemical composition of the water and increased presence of predators are other important factors to consider," the coordinator of Lake Natron Consultative Group, Mr Ken Mwathe, told a news conference Monday.
Mr Mwathe said the group - comprising 32 institutions in East, Central and Southern Africa as well as in North America - was opposing the Lake Natron Resource Limited's new plans to shift the project to a new site around the lake.
The firm is jointly owned by Tata Chemicals Ltd of India, and Tanzania's parastatal National Development Corporation.
Its initial plan was to set up a soda ash plant with an annual production capacity of 0.5 million tonnes at the lake.
"The group is stepping up efforts to have the project halted through advocacy and by commissioning further studies into the comparative cost benefits of the project," Mr Mwathe said.
Ecosystem
The cost-benefit analysis would compare the costs and benefits of soda ash mining and those of tourism, pastoralism, culture, biodiversity and other natural resources within the ecosystem, he said.
Apart from the more than 1,000 jobs for casual labourers and about 100 for permanent employees to be created through the investment, other benefits of the project have not been made clear, he said.
"Any financial benefits can't surpass ecological ones," argued Mr Paul Matiku, the executive director of Nature Kenya.
Mr Joseph ole Saningo, the executive director of Ilkisongo Pastoralists Initiatives from Longido District in Tanzania, in turn, lashed out at the decision makers for their failure to involve local communities in the decision.
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