Bad news for Lake Nakuru national park,
high numbers of flamingos have migrated to lakes in the western Rift Valley as
result of an increase in Lake Nakuru’s water levels. They have settled in Lake
Oloidien in Naivasha, Lake Bogoria as well as Elementaita. According to Joseph
Dadacha who is the Deputy senior warden at Lake Nakuru National Park the water levels are as a result
climate changes and the water has increased by about three meters. The
changes have let to an increase in the number of tourists who are visiting the
area from within the country and from the rest of the parts of the world.
But they had never experienced this kind of water level, not even during El
nino rains so said Dadacha.
The too much water that is flowing into
the lake has diluted the salinity of the water which is needed to make algae
which is food for the birds and therefore the birds have to go to some other
salty lakes where they will get food and perhaps will return to Nakuru
when conditions improve. He also said since the flooding only about 10,000
lesser flamingoes out of 400,000 are in the lake.
Unfortunately, the number of cormorants
and pelicans has increased and lots of acacia trees have dried up because of
the water logging and animals like Columbus monkeys, Reed Bucks and Impalas will soon run to
other places since they can not live in a water logged area. Dadacha added that
the rains have made most roads at the park impassable therefore making so had
for tourists to travel there. For instance in some parts, there roads have been
washed away while in others they are filled with water, levels at the Lake have
moved to a distance of 500 meters from the original lake shoreline. A lot of
money, over 2 million has been spent on repairing the damaged road so said
Dadacha.
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