Tanzanian power crisis threatens rare toad

December 3, 2000
Web posted at: 11:43 AM EST (1643 GMT)

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (Reuters) -- A power crisis in Tanzania is threatening the rare spray toad.

The 12,000 toads face the risk of extinction or relocation from their natural habitat after it was found they were adversely affecting power generation at the Kihansi hydropower plant in Iringa, southern Tanzania.

Two years of drought have forced Tanzania to ration power supplies.

About eight cubic meters of water -- equivalent to producing 15 megawatts of electricity -- have to be sprinkled on the toads every second to sustain the rare species, Energy and Minerals Minister Edgar Maokola-Majogo said last week.

He said this was not possible in the current power crisis and he had ordered a study that may ultimately lead to their relocation to a different habitat.

"Every effort will be taken to conserve them," Maokola-Majogo said after touring the dam.

An endangered species, the spray toad is only found on the banks of the river Kihansi where the 180-megawatt hydropower station is situated.

It gives birth instead of laying eggs, the only known species of its kind in the world, according to experts.

Initial efforts have seen 500 of them flown to the United States for temporary custody.

While there, studies will be conducted to determine whether the toads could survive in different environmental conditions.

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