Kenya's heart stops pumping |
 At the edges of Kenya's Lake Nakuru, Paul Opiyo picks up a dead flamingo and warns some eager tourists not to touch it, just in case. He points down to his feet - the brown earth is speckled with brittle white feather shafts. "We should be underwater, standing here," says the deputy warden of Lake Nakuru national park. "This isn't the lake shore. This is the lake floor." The disappearing lake To reach the water's edge, we have driven hundreds of metres out across the former lake bed - now a barren moonscape of tyre tracks and bones.
"Twenty years ago, this lake was 2.6 metres deep," says Mr Opiyo, of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). "Last month, it was 1.4 metres. "One point four metres," he says again. "It is a lake you can literally walk across." Lake Nakuru is disappearing. And with it, around 1.5 million flamingoes - the icon of the Rift Valley - are under threat. The pink ribbon round the lakeshore is a marvel which attracts 1,000 people a day to Nakuru, the most visited of all Kenya's national parks. "They come to be baptised in the birdwatchers' paradise," says Mr Opiyo. "We have marabou stork, pelicans, yellow billed stork, Egyptian geese..." Trouble in paradise But this year, there is not enough water to be "baptised" in. All three of the rivers that feed Nakuru are bone dry. The rivers flow from Mau forest. We climb down into a dusty brown ditch - the remains of the Njoro, the main river flowing into Lake Nakuru.  The River Njoro - in the rainy season This is the rainy season - the water should be over our heads. But the measuring gauges are redundant. "This used to be a permanent river - even in the dry season there was always some water flowing," says Bernard Kuloba, a KWS ecologist. "Now it's becoming a seasonal river. And the dry period is increasing. "One reason is climate change. But the other is land use change - upstream in Mau forest.
"Settlement and agriculture have increased. The water entering at the top does not reach the bottom." Down at the lakeside, the animals are thirsty - and not only the flamingoes. The park is home to black rhino, water buffalo, hippos and tree-climbing lions. All these animals need fresh river water for drinking because the lake itself is saline - like many in Rift Valley. With the rivers empty, the marabou storks are now drinking instead from a stagnant pool of greasy grey gloop. "This is sewage from the nearby town," says Mr Opiyo.  "The smell is a sign that it was not completely treated. "The pelicans, the flamingoes... this is what they have to survive on - treated sewage." Desperate strategy To keep the wildlife alive, the Kenya Wildlife Service has adopted a slightly desperate strategy. Each month, they use 12,000 litres of diesel and spend 100,000 shillings pumping water from deep underground boreholes into drinking troughs. These boreholes are sustaining the animals - so far.
But the trouble, says Mr Kuloba, is that the underground reservoir is fast drying up. The water in the aquifer is not being replenished because of the damage to the forest ecosystem. "Already, one of the boreholes we dug in the park is dry - we are not able to pump," says the ecologist. "The aquifer is low. If we had a consistent drought, it would dry out." He points to a pile of bones - the remains of a buffalo that has desiccated in the heat. "It came here to drink and then it died. If the droughts continue, this will become an annual ritual." The Kenya Wildlife Service knows the park cannot depend on boreholes forever.  The boreholes dug in the park were not enough to save this buffalo In the neighbouring towns of Nakuru and Njoro, hundreds of thousands of people are also suffering from water shortages. To compensate, they rely on boreholes - which drain from the same aquifer as the animals in the park. "A situation is arising where humans and wildlife are competing. And when that happens, people will switch off water for wildlife so we can get some for ourselves," says Mr Kuloba. "I see that happening very soon. I see conflict coming. The next thing we might see is vandalism of the park fences." Lake Nakuru is the flagship of Kenya's 36 national parks and reserves.
The park took 513 million shillings ($6.8m; £4m) in 2007 - money which is essential to keep the smaller parks alive. "Parks like Sibiloi and Kakamega - the revenue from Nakuru is what keeps them afloat," says Paul Udoto, a KWS spokesman. "If Lake Nakuru dies, those parks will be at great risk". From the roan antelope in Ruma to the turtles at Malindi, one way or another, they all drink from Lake Nakuru. Which is why the Kenya Wildlife Service has become a major player in the operation to restore the Mau forest ecosystem. Their rangers patrol the park in search of illegal loggers - and they will oversee the removal of settlers. "Once the Mau recovers, you can be sure the rivers will flow," says Paul Opiyo. "The sun will rise over Nakuru again".  Lake Nakuru - slowly disappearing |
The pelicans and the flamingos are surviving on treated sewage 
