Arusha — Lake Natron is drying up again: common thing during drought times like these except that the incident may just be another early warning to volcanic disaster.

Lying at the leeward foot of often boiling Oldonyo L'engai lava, the Natron has been considered the cooling radiator to the 'Mountain-of-God' and whenever the lake dries up as it did in 2007 the molten rocks would sprout out of L'engai cone which standing at 3460 meters is Tanzania's third highest peak after Kilimanjaro and Meru.

A recent visit to the lake site has revealed the regular hills of rocky islands dot the wide steaming damp landscape of the wetland site, as the huge water body shrinks away leaving behind a warm chalky, muddy estate surrounded by an alkaline dust shore.

Local residents say the water level in the caustic water body has been rapidly falling since May 2009 and continue to ebb away. Worse is the fact that drought period expected from August may take away the last drop.

Rivers that feed water into Lake Natron, Pinyinyi stream and Enkare-sero River are also far from recording steady flow of water, further threatening the survival of one of the highly attractive tourism destinations in East Africa.

A natural birth site for the rare pink flamingoes the lake lies within the East African Rift System, in Ngorongoro District, about 113 kilometers northwest of Arusha Municipality, right at the foot of Oldonyo L'engai.

The lake basin is 56 kilometers long and 24 kilometers wide and contains salt, soda, and magnesite deposits, components that of late have attracted an investment plan which became a bone of contention between investors and green activists.

Lake Natron is a globally acclaimed Ramsar site, recognized as a Wetland of international importance.

The Natron is shallow, being less than three meters (or 10 feet) deep. Its warm water is described to be an ideal breeding ground for the Rift Valley flamingos. The water has been transformed into a dark quagmire at the moment.

The birds are are now nowhere in sight, in fact no living creature could be seen around the drying water body by the time we visited the area, though during early and late hours of the day, local residents could be seen wadding the mud collecting caustic soda flakes.

Sachets filled with these flakes can be seen lining up along the dusty road leading into and out of Enkaresero village. Residents sell the caustic flakes to motorists and other travelers along the route but this is far from being a roaring business as few people bother to buy them at the cost of between Tsh. 2000 and Tsh. 5000 per sachet.

Oldonyo L'engai the active volcano feature stands at 3459 meters in the southeastern edge of the lake together with the entire Gelai mountain ranges. At the moment the volcanic feature can be seen puffing out huge clouds of dark smoke.

Just west of Lake Natron at Pinyinyi, it is where archaeologists, Richard Leakey and Glynn Isaac discovered the Peninj fossil which is also known as the 'Natron mandible,' in 1964.

Said to be 1.5 million years old, the Peninj Mandible is an almost perfectly preserved fossil hominid jaws containing a complete set of adult teeth.

The specimen has been assigned to the Australopithecus boisei.

Lake Natron is the only breeding location for Lesser Flamingoes because of its caustic environment acting as a barrier against predators trying to reach their nests. The temperatures in the mud can reach 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), and depending on rainfall, the alkalinity of Ph of 9 to 10.5 almost as alkaline as ammonia.