Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published:June07,2022
Kenya’s state-run electricity distribution company is re-configuring power lines to prevent the electrocution of birds such as flamingos, pelicans and cranes.
The Kenya Power and Lighting Company. has re-routed a 33 kilovolt power line outside Lake Nakuru National Park to prevent flamingos and pelicans from flying into it, the company said in an statement Monday. Work is ongoing to relocate a 132 kilovolt power line near the park that’s about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north west of the capital, Nairobi, in the Great Rift Valley, to provide enough clearance for the birds as they take off or land.
The company is also in the process of changing the design of a three-kilometre stretch of a 33 kilovolt power line that serves Kinangop in central Kenya, to provide enough space for the endangered gray crowned African cranes to maneuver with ease, the utility said. It has also installed reflector balls on some pylon tops, pole tops and substation structures at to prevent marabou storks from perching on these.
Kenya, which counts tourism as its third-largest source of foreign exchange, was ranked seventh out of 195 nations globally with 791 bird species recorded during the 2021 October Global Big Day, a 24-hour opportunity to celebrate birds, according to Nature Kenya.
