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Tanzania told to stop Lake Natron project

DAR ES SALAAM - The Lake Natron Consultative Group (The Group) has urged the Tanzania government to ensure that no further processes related to the proposed soda ash project are undertaken before the Integrated Management Plan for the Lake Natron Ramsar site is completed.

Lake Natron
Lake Natron


The Secretary of the Group Mr. Ken Mwathe, urged Tanzania government last week that the plan should be preceded by detailed studies, including the ecology and breeding behaviour of the lesser flamingos and cost benefit analysis. The Group was responding to a statement by the National Development Corporation (NDC), the co-investor with Tata Chemicals Limited (TLC) of India in the proposed $ 500 million soda ash project on L. Natron, Northern Tanzania.

In its statement the NDC says the project was given “negative publicity”, and NDC was concerned about the environment and has responded by shifting the project site to 32 kilometres away.

NDC also said it had commissioned a new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Integrated Management Planning process for the Ramsar site. The Group maintains that NDC being a player in the process, is not in a position to determine the fate of the proposed project and that the woes now facing the project were largely attributable to NDC for its failure to advice the government on the need to follow the due process as prescribed by Tanzanian laws.

Following this, the ESIA report was faulted by the Technical Advisory Committee of the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) on Nov 2, 2007 and was overwhelmingly rejected during the public hearing on January 23, 2008.

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