Lake Retba

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Pink-colored lake in Senegal

title: "Lake Retba" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lakes-of-senegal", "saline-lakes-of-africa"] description: "Pink-colored lake in Senegal" topic_path: "general/lakes-of-senegal" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Retba" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Pink-colored lake in Senegal ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]

Field	Value
name	Lake Retba
image	File:RetbaLakeShore.jpg
caption	Lake shore
location	Cap Vert Peninsula
coords
type	Hypersaline lake
pushpin_map	Senegal
basin_countries	Senegal
area	3 km2
max-depth	3 m
::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Lac_Rose_in_Senegal.jpg" caption="Lac Rose in Senegal"] ::

Lake Retba, also known as Lac Rose (meaning "pink lake"), lies north of the Cap Vert peninsula in Senegal, some 35 km north-east of the capital, Dakar, in northwest Africa. It is named for its pink waters caused by Dunaliella salina algae and is known for its high salt content, up to 40% in some areas. Its colour is usually particularly strong from late January to early March, during the dry season. Flooding in September 2022 not only disrupted salt harvesting activities on the lake, but also led the lake to lose its colour, causing a negative effect on tourism. However, as of 2025, the lake has regained some of its colour.

The lake is under consideration by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Description

The lake is situated 35 km north-east of Dakar, The colour is particularly visible during the dry season (from November to May) and less visible during the rainy season (June to October).

Salt

The lake is known for its high salt content (up to 40% in some areas), which is mainly due to the ingress of seawater and its subsequent evaporation. Like the Dead Sea, the lake is sufficiently buoyant that people can float easily.

Salt is exported across the region by up to 3,000 collectors, men and women from all over western Africa, who work 6–7 hours a day. They protect their skin with beurre de Karité (shea butter), an emollient produced from shea nuts which helps avoid tissue damage. The salt is used by Senegalese fishermen to preserve fish, which is an ingredient in many traditional recipes, including the national dish, which is a fish and rice combination called thieboudienne. About 38,000 tonnes of salt are harvested from this lake each year, which contributes to Senegal's salt production industry. Senegal is the number-one producer of salt in Africa. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Lake_Retba_(Lac_Rose),_worker_is_digging_the_salt_in_the_lake.jpg" caption="Worker harvesting salt from the lake" alt="worker is digging the salt in the lake"] ::

Flooding

In 2022, severe flooding caused by torrential rains in Dakar devastated the lake. The floods breached its banks and contaminated its waters, turning its characteristic pink hue to green. This transformation threatens the ecosystem and economy of the area, impacting salt farmers, boatmen, souvenir vendors, and tourism. The flooding destroyed USD$696,000 worth of salt mounds, submerged businesses, and disrupted the lake's unique microbiome, jeopardizing future harvests and tourist visits. The lake has since partially regained its pink hue.

Wildlife

Despite the high salinity of the lake, which can reach as high as 350 g/L during the dry season, blackchin tilapia have been found living in brackish sections fed fresh water by an intermittent creek.

World heritage listing

Lake Retba has been under consideration by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since October 2005, and remains so .

Motorsport

The lake was often the finishing point of the Dakar Rally, before the rally moved to South America in 2009.

In 2021, it hosted a round of the Extreme E electric off-road racing series.

References

(2025-03-25). "Back in the pink: Senegal salt lake gets its colour back".
. (5 June 2012). ["Lake Retba in Senegal Looks Like A Giant Strawberry Milkshake"](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/05/lake-retba-senegal-giant-strawberry-milkshake_n_1570007.html).
(26 October 2013). "22 Epic Places You Didn't Know Existed". HuffPost.
(19 August 2013). "How salt miners save Senegal's Pink Lake". [[BBC News Online]].
"Lake Retba". Atlas Obscura.
(3 February 2023). "Senegal's Lake Retba loses pink colour after flooding, putting livelihoods at risk". [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]].
(19 June 2012). "Danau Pink, Sensasi Wisata Apung di Senegal". VIVAnews.
Eddy, Jody. (14 March 2014). "Swim a Pink Lake in Senegal". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
(2018). "Relevance of a Geographical Indication for Salt From Senegal's Pink Lake". FAO.
Dione, Ngouda. (January 24, 2023). "Life's no longer rosy at Senegal's Pink Lake after floods".
(1984). "Occurrence of Sarotherodon melanotheron Rueppell (teleostean fish, Cichlidae) in hyperhaline waters of Retba lake (Senegal) [Tilapia hendelotii]". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série III.
(2017-11-10). "The Inland Water Fishes of Africa: Diversity, Ecology and Human Use".
(2017). "Fish communities in small aquatic ecosystems: caves, gueltas, crater and salt lakes". IRD Éditions.
"Le Lac Rose".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::