Too much freshwater diluted the lake, ruining conditions needed for the super-saline environment
By Ilham Sougue
/ NIAGA, Senegal
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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 is going to sell to tourists and traders.It is 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 paid Toure’s bills and gave the water its rosy hue.Overnight, salt harvesters such as Toure lost their jobs and tourism slowed to a trickle, devastating the local economy.
