00:01In the waters of Senegal's Pink Lake, Seydou Toure scrapes salt from the lake bed.
00:07He'll later sell it to tourists and traders in a job that's sustained him for more than 15 years.
00:13The lake has given me everything. I owe everything to this lake,
00:19including that it allowed me to buy horses, cows, and everything I have at home.
00:23I owe it all to this lake.
00:25But flooding in 2022 changed things.
00:28The influx of fresh water diluted the lake's highly saline waters,
00:33disrupting both salt formation and the conditions needed for its famous pink color.
00:40Authorities diverted floodwaters into Pink Lake, using it for emergency drainage.
00:45Overnight, salt harvesters like Toure lost their jobs, while tourism slowed.
00:51We woke up one morning and had lost everything.
00:54We were forced to bring in machines to collect the salt
00:56and save as much as possible by moving it to higher ground.
01:01There was little we could do to protect it.
01:04But now that painful chapter appears to be ending.
01:08After a years-long effort to pump excess water from the lake,
01:12its old color is back.
01:14And community leaders earlier this month held a traditional ceremony,
01:18marking its official reopening for salt extraction.
01:21Pink Lake, officially known as Lake Redbutt, gets its color from microorganisms.
01:27Experts say they thrive in highly saline conditions.
01:31An estimated 3,000 salt harvesters normally work at the spot,
01:35a short distance northeast of the capital, Dakar.
01:39Toure is once again spending hours in the water extracting salt.
01:43Now, local hotels are preparing for tourists to return too.
01:48And with the lake able to attract up to 8,000 visitors during the tourist season,
01:53there's a lot at stake.
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