Kenya’s State-run electricity distribution company is re-configuring power lines to prevent the electrocution of birds such as flamingos, pelicans and cranes.
Kenya Power and Lighting Co has re-routed a 33 kV 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 kV power line near the park that’s about 160 km 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-kilometer stretch of a 33 kV 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.
Kenya Power has incorporated environmental impact assessment as one of the key tools that will inform decision making during construction of medium and high-voltage power lines, it said.