.Lake Retba
Lake Retba is located north of the Senegalese Cape Verde Peninsula, in the northeast of the African country, 35 kilometers from Dakar. Its area is 3 square kilometers. The lake is characterized by its pink color, which is very prominent during the dry season. This is due to the presence of an algae called Dunaliella salina, which produces a red pigment that absorbs sunlight. The high salinity level in the lake allows people to float on its waters easily, just like in the Dead Sea.
Workers collect salt manually by going down to the lake and extracting salt from the lake. To avoid the effects of highly salty water, the workers rub their bodies with shea butter, which has a greasy, moisturizing consistency and is extracted from the seeds of the shea tree spread in central Africa.
The World Heritage Committee is currently considering including the lake as a World Heritage Site.
Lake Retba in Senegal has become a landmark eligible for inclusion in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to the red color that covers it. The lake contains some algae called “Donaliella salina.” This algae contains a red pigment.
Lake Retba means “pink lake” in French, as it is located in the north of the Cape Verde Peninsula and northeast of the capital, Dakar, in the state of Senegal in northwest Africa.
Dunaliella salina algae produces a red pigment to increase the absorption of light, which provides the energy needed to manufacture the energy-rich compound ATP, and the pink color appears clearly in the dry season. The lake also contains a large percentage of salt, just like the Dead Sea. It is easy for people to float in its water due to its salinity, and there is activity based on collecting salt from it, as salt reaches 40% of its content in some parts.
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