An aerial view of Lake Retba, known as the Pink Lake, in Senegal on March 19, 2025. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP)
Lake Retba, Senegal: The waters of Senegal's Lake Retba are back to their famous pink hues three years after floods washed away their rosy tinge -- and businessfolk and tourists are thrilled.
No sooner had the news hit social media when Julie Barrilliot, 20, bought a plane ticket to fly over from France.
Widely known as the "Pink Lake," Retba is a magnet for tourists, lying 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the capital Dakar.
Separated from the Atlantic by a narrow dune, the shallow lake is so densely laden with salt that, as in the Dead Sea, bathers float like corks.
Harvesting and selling the salt -- that plays a key role in imbuing the lake with its signature tinge -- from its waters is a lucrative sideline.
But in late 2022, unusual and heavy flooding hit the region, likely aggravated by climate change scientists told AFP at the time, and disturbed the ecological balance of the lake.
Afterwards, the water lost its pinkish colour, proving a hammer blow to salt producers, traders, hotel owners and other commercial activities linked to the legendary "Pink Lake".
"In 2023, we noticed that our activities were slowing down and we undertook to rent a pump to extract the excess water from the lake, which had engulfed the entire ecosystem favourable to its pink hue," Amadou Bocoum Diouf, manager of the Chez Salim hotel, told AFP.
"Its depth had gone from two to six metres (6.6 to 20 feet)," Diouf, who is also president of the union grouping traders and hoteliers of the lake, added.
The pumping operation cost them several million CFA francs (several thousand euros) before the government stepped in, he said.
"But it's not all pink?" remarked Barrilliot disappointedly, who tried to console herself with a horse ride near where she was staying.
The hotel manager Ibrahima Mbaye, who heads an association to protect the lake, tried to reassure her that within an hour or two the pink colour would be back.
"For there to be pink, it needs warm sun and a fresh wind," Mbaye said. His Gite du Lac hotel has been swamped with phone calls from operators and foreign tourists wanting to know for sure that the lake is back to its famous colour.
And just before midday, the waters' shimmer turned to pink.
