Comprehension

A CHEMICAL THREAT

The life of Kenya's world-famous Lake Nakuru seems certain to be destroyed if a newly opened factory close to the shores of the lake continues to manufacture the highly toxic fungicide copper oxychloride. Ever since the factory's existence emerged into public notice at the end of last year, conservationists in Kenya have been urging the government to withdraw the manufacturing permit from the company, Copal Ltd. In spite of an independent report which severely criticised the production procedures and recommended the factory's immediate closure, Copal still has its licence. The continual lack of government action was instrumental in causing the World Wildlife Fund (Kenya) to suspend all new financial support for Kenya.

Lake Nakuru is one of a number of soda lakes scattered along the Great Rift Valley that skewers its way through East Africa, and its principal feature is as an occasional home for a large proportion of the three million or so pink flamingoes that move up and down the valley. This, together with the rich selection of other birds, was the reason for making the lake area a national park in 1968. In 1990 the government accepted more than £170,000 from the World Wildlife Fund which was to be used to buy land around the lake so as to extend the park to 50,000 acres. In return the government signed an undertaking not to allow man-made hazards to threaten the lake.
Because of its unusual chemistry as a soda lake, Nakuru depends heavily on a healthy growth of algae to maintain its invertebrate, fish, and bird populations. If the algae perish then the lake will become almost totally impoverished biologically. According to a Netherlands university report published on 'The possible toxicological implications of copper in Lake Nakuru in Kenya', a level of 0.21 mg of copper per litre of lake would push the algae to the edge of destruction. The report also shows that the lake water currently contains 0.08 mg of copper per litre, the result of pesticide-containing run-off from surrounding agricultural lands. The unavoidable spillage of copper oxychloride from the Copal factory would lift this to the lethal level within one year.
The World Wildlife Fund is anxious to stress that it is not blaming the factory for the recent departure of the flamingoes from Nakuru; the copper effluent has not yet had time to exert its effect on the algae. Lake Nakuru is clearly just one of several temporary homes used by the birds. Within the past few weeks, however, the flamingoes have begun to return to the lake in large numbers, and they are currently estimated at around 250,000. If the algae in the lake die the flamingoes, and the rest of the birds, will depart for ever, and, instead of going through cycles of biological abundance and paucity, the lake will remain impoverished. Once copper levels have accumulated they cannot be removed.
Destruction of the lake could possibly be justified if the commercial venture were to be of great importance to Kenya: certainly, with its rapidly growing population, the country desperately needs a healthy economy. But the economics of Copal's oxychloride operations make little sense. The company claims that 85 per cent of its output is destined for export. Why, then, locate the factory 400 miles from the coast so that both raw materials and finished products will be making costly journeys? Copal also admit that they will be forced to use pure copper in the manufacture as there is an insufficient supply of scrap in the country. Recently, another factory making copper oxychloride in Nairobi, using scrap metal, failed to secure an export order because its price was 20 per cent higher than that offered by a chemical company in a copper-producing country. The competitiveness of Copal's product on the world market is therefore in serious doubt. The benefits of the Copal venture are difficult to envisage, and they vanish into insignificance when balanced against the harm that will be inevitably inflicted on Lake Nakuru and its neighbouring town. There is still time to prevent the damage from becoming irreparable, but it is fast running out.