SafariLands.org: Places: Scramble for Oldonyo L’engai

Active Mountain of God "in Maasai" the Ol Doinyo Lengai

Oldonyo L'engai's active volcano has calmed off, but the legendary land feature is experiencing a new type of eruption: A tussle for its ownership by three parties. Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority want to take over the mountain and include it in its list of attractive features; Tata Chemicals Limited, a Mumbai - based Indian company, on the other hand, is bracing itself to grab the Lake Natron basin surrounding the volcano and harvest its Soda ash reserves.

But as the two titans head for the ownership, some 6000 local residents in the surrounding six villages claim their rightful ownership of the entire land including both the mountain and the lake.

Africa's only active volcanic mountain could soon become part of Ngorongoro Conservation Area which wants to include Lake Natron in the package. Should the NCAA's recent proposal be accepted by residents, chances are some 6000 people stand to be affected in one way or another.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Authority intention to claim control of the Oldonyo L'engai Mountain and declare it a reserved feature is a move that will wipe out six villages, displacing their thousands of residents in the process. The move is being received with mixed feelings.

There are those who oppose the move fearing mass displacing of villagers and a few who would rather have 'the devil they know' in the form of NCAA than having Tata Chemicals Limited set up a large soda extracting factory at Lake Natron, a vast water body located adjacent to the Oldonyo L'engai mountain.

Tata Chemicals Limited is India's leading manufacturer of inorganic chemicals, fertilizers and food additives, the company runs a similar Soda Ash factory at Magadi area in the neighboring country of Kenya.

According to the proposal, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority will not only take total charge of Oldonyo L'engai mountain but also the corresponding Lake Natron, a wide Rift Valley water bird sanctuary, whose controversial proposed Soda Ash plant project still hangs on limbo.

The shallow saline lake is the only breeding area for the 2.5 million endangered flamingo species.

Lake Natron lies about 113 kilometers northwest from Arusha Municipality, with a basin of 56 kilometers long and 24 kilometers wide containing; soda, and magnesite deposits. The warm Lake water is described as an ideal breeding ground for the Rift Valley flamingos.

Lake Natron is also a Ramsar site, recognized internationally as a wetland of international importance.

Once the vicinity is declared a conservation area the proposed Soda Ash project will die a natural death since such industrial activities will not be allowed to take place within the territory.

Standing at the epicenter of the two proposed projects is the busy Enkare-sero village which is located between Mt. L'engai and Lake Natron. Its 1500 residents are now caught between a rock and a hard place.

Enkaresero villagers are totally opposed to the Soda Ash factory, due to both its related environmental concerns and the fact that it 'will do them more harm than good,' but on the other hand they are also skeptic of NCAA's proposal to take over the two land features because the move is likely to invalidate their village.

Christopher Ndurway, the Enkaresero village chairman admitted that the board members of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority recently approached the village leaders with the proposal to take over the land for conservation purposes, official documentations of L'engai's eruptions and to introduce controlled tourism activities.

Reasons cited by NCAA were that the area has been declared 'hostile environment' unsafe to human beings at regular times, but was okay for 'periodical' tourism activities that should be undertaken under official control, expertise supervision and guidance.

The NCAA with its own management, regulations and laws separate from other National Parks, currently control the Ngorongoro crater, Olduvai Gorge and the corresponding National Park.

Recent successive volcanic eruptions at Lengai, located on the other side of the Ngorongoro rift valley wall, have raised concerns regarding the safety of people living around the barren ash-covered 'mountain of god.'

"Oldonyo L'engai has been erupting for ages but Enkare-sero area has never been affected because the volcanic ashes and rocks usually get thrown far away from the mountain base where the village is and deposited to as far as 200 kilometers away," Sarupe Kolekan the village executive officer stated.

Other residents supported his claims saying it was much safer at the foot of the mountain than much further away where the government want to shift them should the NCAA proposal be endorsed.

'Oldonyo L'engai' a Maasai term meaning 'Mountain of God!' had been named so by the locals, because of the mountain's regular rumblings and fierce eruptions. The residents in the locality believe those rumblings were made by the 'gods speaking.' In fact, even the land feature serves as a 'shrine' for the natives who normally worship there.

"We will no longer be able to worship at the mountain once the NCAA kicks us out," said Narosim Lesaiyo a.k.a Judy, who however had no objection if the NCAA was to take over control of the area as long as the residents will be left in there to carry on with their normal activities.

The activities include taking tourists up the Mountain, carrying the visitors' luggage, selling traditional artifacts and as far as Judy's trade is concerned, selling Maasai attires to foreigners. She 'imports' such clothing from Monduli and sell them to visitors at Engaresero, a rather profitable business, that is if her recently bought Land-Rover vehicle is anything to go by.

For Judy, the NCAA plan to take over L'engai seems to be the better of 'two evils' when compared to Tata chemicals' proposal to set up a soda extracting plant at Lake Natron; But why?

"None of the villagers here are educated enough to secure employment at the Soda Ash plant so it won't benefit us at all," she explained, "but if the NCAA leave us here in additional to channeling even more tourists towards L'engai, then that's should pose no problem!"

Evangelist Lembris Ole Muita of the Malambo Lutheran Church said the residents in the area depended on water originating from River Sanjan at Pinyinyi location near Enkaresero, shifting people away from the area as NCAA plans, would kill them of thirst, but again if the Soda ash plant will be built it is going to drain the river dry.

The Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Jowika Steven Kasunga said when the government sent a special commission to L'engai following recent eruptions and quakes it advised that people be moved away from the volcanic epicenter leaving a radius of at least 50 kilometers from the foot of the mountain.

"It was all meant for the people's safety but as it seems, some leaders are afraid that once their villages become nullified their positions will also cease to exists," explained the DC.

"Our village is fully registered and has an official certificate of land ownership," the Enkare-Sero village chairman argued later on.

Dating back to the early 1910s, the barren-brown, single-peaked Oldonyo L'engai has been erupting into red-hot rivers of scorching lava and the last term a serious eruption took place was in March 2006, which became the first ferocious to be recorded since 1966 resulting into a mass exodus of hundreds of people who were fleeing the catastrophe.

Oldonyo L'engai is the only volcano in the world that spews out Natro-carbonatite, highly fluid lava, containing almost no silicon. About 15 tremors rocked the area in mid 2007 and out of those 13 were minor quakes and two major ones,

Other villages surrounding both the 'Mountain of god' and its corresponding Lake Natron include; Nayobi, Magadini, Engaruka, Malambo, Ngaresero, Gelai-bomba and Kitumbeine. All of these will disappear once NCAA takes over the vicinity.

Source: http://www.arushatimes.co.tz

Valentine Marc Nkwame, Arusha