Standing waist-deep in the waters of Senegal’s famed Pink Lake, Seydou Toure uses a shovel to scrape salt from the lakebed that he will later sell to tourists and traders.
It’s a way of life that sustained him for more than a decade and a half before flooding in 2022 altered the ecosystem, robbing the lake of the salinity that both paid Toure’s bills and gave the water its rosy hue.
Overnight, salt harvesters like Toure lost their jobs and tourism slowed to a trickle, devastating the local economy.
Now that painful chapter appears to be ending: After a yearslong effort to pump excess water from the lake, its old colour is back, and community leaders earlier this month held a traditional ceremony marking its official re-opening for salt extraction.
'WE HAD LOST EVERYTHING'
