Namibia: Etosha Pan Has Water for First Time in Decade



The Namibian (Windhoek)

23 April 2008
Posted to the web 23 April 2008

Pearl Coetzee
Windhoek

The massive salty pan of the Etosha National Park is filled with water for the first time in a decade, attracting thousands of bird species, including flamingos.

The floods that hit the northern and northeastern parts of the country have been welcome for animals in the park.


The pan is a large dusty depression of salt and clay, and it only fills up in exceptional rainy seasons.

The ancient lake gradually dried up between two and 10 million years ago when climatic changes and topographic movements caused the Kunene River to change its course and to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

Now, the pan is a stark, seemingly endless depression of pale greenish-white clay, silt and mineral salts.

In years of good rainfall, several tributaries of the Kunene River such as the Oshigambo and the Ekuma in the northwest and the Omuramba Ovambo in the east drain into the pan, attracting thousands of flamingos and other wading birds.

The water can be as much as twice saltier than seawater, and therefore generally unfit for animal consumption.

The unusually heavy rains this year also filled several small, usually dry lakes to the north.

A San legend about the formation of the Etosha Pan tells of how a village was raided, and everyone but the women murdered.

One woman was so upset about the death of her family that she cried until her tears formed a massive lake.


When the lake dried up, nothing was left apart from a huge white pan.

The Etosha National Park is one of the largest savannah conservation areas in Africa, and is renowned for its spectacular wildlife: elephants, black and white rhinoceros, lions, leopards, cheetahs, large herds of springbok, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and a multitude of other fascinating species, big and small, interacting in their natural environment.

Nampa

That would be spectacular to see.

I will be there in July, will it be dry then?

I'm going to be driving through Etosha on June 8-10th, and really hope to see this! I've heard that the rains have been the bet in a LONG time throughout the country, and I hope it means larger, better wildlife and more to see.

I'll be at Etosha May 18-20. Should be really cool to see the pan with some water in it. I'm guessing things are looking pretty green in Namibia this year.