Local people from Lake Natron voiced their concerns at a public hearing held on 24 January to the proposed soda ash plant there which would threaten the world’s largest population of Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor. ?There is no need to accept a project that will later destroy us?, said the traditional chief from Pinyinyi, one of the villages adjacent to Lake Natron. He likened the development to “taking a fish and throwing it into the bush”.