Global News - May 2008
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Controversial Tanzanian factory 'could threaten rare flamingos'
Tue 06 May 2008 14:00 UK — Africa,Birds
A government-owned firm in Tanzania has rejected concerns voiced by conservationists that a new soda-ash plant will threaten rare flamingos in the country.
Reuters reported that the state-run National Development Corporation (NDC) said that plans to move the proposed project 35 kilometres from Lake Natron would help protect the rare birds.
In total, three-quarters of the world population of lesser flamingos travel to the lake to breed.
Local wildlife experts had claimed that waste from the plant could damage the lake's ecosystem, killing off the algae that the flamingos feed on.
However, Gideon Nasari, managing director of the NDC, told Reuters that the relocation of the site would protect the birds.
He said in a phone interview: "By locating the factory away from the lake, we are going to make sure that we can co-exist with the flamingos."
Despite these claims, local conservationist Paul Matiku reportedly warned in a press conference that the birds could become extinct within five years if the building went ahead.
In recent years, pollution in the Kenyan lakes of Nakuru and Bogoria has been blamed for sharp declines in local flamingo populations.
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