セネガルの「ピンクの湖」　水面上昇で塩産業と観光に打撃

【リュフィスクＡＦＰ＝時事】セネガルの首都ダカールの北東４０キロに位置する塩湖レトバは、観光客に人気の「ピンクの湖」として知られる。（写真は、水面下に沈んだレトバ湖の観光客向け施設）
　塩職人協会の会長マゲット・ヌドゥールさんはそのほとりに立ち、「水面が上昇する中で私たちが守ることができたのはこれだけです」と言って、２００トンの塩の山を指さした。この浅い湖の塩分濃度は非常に高く、住民にとって塩の採取と販売は高収入の副業となっている。
　だが、湖にのみ込まれてしまう前に何とか確保できた残りの塩も、２か月足らずで全て売れてしまうだろうとヌドゥールさんは語った。
　こうした事態を招いたのは今年の激しい豪雨だ。雨期のピークだった８月には、湖に流れ込んだ洪水のせいで深さが通常の３倍近くにまでなったという。気象当局の専門家は豪雨について、国連の気候変動に関する政府間パネルによる異常気象に関する最新の警告とも内容が合致すると指摘する。
　洪水の結果、生産された塩約７０００トンが流された。ヌドゥールさんによると、経済的損失は２５万ドル（約３５００万円）相当に上る。
　おまけに増水で塩分濃度は下がり、また水深が増したために、通常は浅瀬で塩くみをする作業員が湖に立てなくなった。
　さらに、この湖に独特の色を与えているのは塩であることから、「塩がなくなればピンク色ではなくなってしまいます」とヌドゥールさんは憂える。それは観光業にとっても悪い知らせだ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/22-17:28）

Maguette Ndiour stands on the edge of Senegal's Lake Retba, famous for its pink-hued waters, and points to a mound of salt slowly being shovelled into bags by men toiling under the hot midday sun.
This is the last of what we were able to save as the waters rose, Ndiour, the head of an association of artisanal salt collectors, says of the 200-tonne pile.
In two months, he says, they will have sold all the salt they were able to rescue before the lake swallowed up the rest.
After that, it could take up to four years before the coveted mineral can be harvested again, he adds.
That's because of torrential rains this year that a top meteorological expert says could be in line with warnings about climate change.
Widely known as the Pink Lake, Retba is a magnet for tourists, lying 25 miles (40 kilometres) northeast of the capital Dakar.
Separated from the Atlantic by a narrow dune, the shallow lake is so densely laden with salt that, as in the Dead Sea, bathers float like corks. Harvesting and selling the salt from its famed waters is a lucrative sideline.
At the height of the rainy season in August, water cascaded into the lake, nearly tripling its usual depth to around six metres (20 feet), according to Ndiour and an environmental activist, Ibrahima Khalil Mbaye.
The influx washed away some 7,000 tonnes of salt that had been harvested, a financial hit of nearly a quarter of a million dollars, according to Ndiour.
Around three thousand families earn their livelihoods extracting bucketfuls of salt from the lake bed, which are then hauled back in boats and dried on the shore.
But the salt deposits are now more dilute because of the greater water volume -- and the greater depth now means they are out of reach for the diggers, who stand in the lake's shallows.
- No more pink -
Worse, said Ndiour, the salt plays a key role in imbuing the lake with its signature tinge -- so if there is no more salt, we can't have the pink.
That spells bad news for tourism.
On a clear October afternoon at the height of Senegal's hot season, Julien Heim, a 21-year-old French tourist, disembarked from a wooden fishing boat after a row around the lake.
It was cool, he said. It's just that there are no more terraces on the banks -- and the lake isn't pink.
Standing in the village where Heim's tour ended, Maimouna Fedior, a 47-year-old owner of a lakefront store, said the floods had caused misery.
The mother of four lost much of her merchandise, including paintings, masks and wooden knick-knacks.
Now she borrows another space further inland and hopes the state will step in to help.
Tourism is all we know, she told AFP. I've been here for 30 years -- all my children, I pay for their schooling with this, I feed them with this.
- 'Choked' -
Ousmane Ndiaye, director of meteorology at the National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology, said this year's rainy season was exceptional.
The intense nature of the rain is consistent with the outcome of the latest IPCC report... (on) the frequency of extreme weather events, he said referring to the UN's expert panel on climate change.
Mbaye said the water had been pumped into the lake from the suburbs of Dakar, fuelling concern that it carried toxic residues.
This water passed through streets, alleyways, petrol stations, he said.
Mamadou Alpha Sidibe, director of flood prevention and management at the ministry of water, denied that the water had been pumped.
No pipelines or drains had been installed and ditches that brought the water into the lake from the surrounding areas had been formed naturally, he said.
Sidibe blamed the rains for triggering the flooding but said it was aggravated by exponential urbanisation.
The area began to experience development around the early 2000s, Sidibe told AFP.
All this was done in a context in which we didn't have so much rain, so people (built) on waterways.
Environment Minister Alioune Ndoye visited the area in early October and spoke with salt miners and those in the tourism industry.
His ministry has collected water samples for a quality analysis, the results of which have not yet been released.
But as things stand, Mbaye said the lake is being choked... it's a catastrophe.