Lesser flamingos have deserted one of their last African breeding sites after years of sewage spills turned South Africa’s Kamfers Dam toxic, conservationists say.
Kamfers Dam, near the city of Kimberley, had been the only breeding site for lesser flamingos in South Africa, hosting tens of thousands of the pink birds until about five years ago. The dam was one of four African breeding sites, including two salt pans in Botswana and Namibia and a soda lake in Tanzania. Now, the lesser flamingo has just three viable breeding grounds left on the continent.
“It’s really very upsetting,” said Tania Anderson, a conservation biologist who works with flamingos. She said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) plans to upgrade the lesser flamingo’s status to “vulnerable” because of shrinking habitats and pollution.
The lesser flamingo, known for feeding on blue-green algae in shallow, alkaline water, is already listed as near-threatened. About 2-3 million remain, but their numbers are dropping.
A court order reviewed by Reuters found the local municipality failed to maintain sewage treatment plants, resulting in roughly 36 million litres of untreated waste flooding the dam daily. Conservation groups say the spill has destroyed the dam’s once-thriving ecosystem.
When Reuters visited this month, no flamingos were visible. Green sludge bubbled on the surface, stinking of human waste. “It was a sea of pink,” said Brenda Booth, who owns land around the dam. “They all just disappeared.”
Municipal manager Thapelo Matlala blamed theft and vandalism of treatment plant equipment for the sewage crisis, saying repairs would cost about 106 million rand ($5.92 million). He acknowledged the council lacks the funds.
The lesser flamingos began breeding at Kamfers Dam in 2006, said Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer, a wetlands specialist for local diamond miner Ekapa Group. In 2020, the site hosted 71,000 birds and thousands of chicks each season, but the flamingos have missed three or four breeding cycles since then.
Sewage spills are a growing problem across South Africa. “If nothing is done, the whole system will degrade and blow up,” said van der Westhuizen-Coetzer. “That will have a huge impact — and not only on flamingos.”
