Engineers to breach Kruger Park dam after poisonings

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Engineers plan to breach the walls of a giant dam in South Africa's world famous Kruger National Park after scores of wildlife died from drinking its poisoned water, officials said Thursday.

The decision to send the bulldozers in to smash down part of Nhlanganzwane Dam in the southeastern section of the park was made after the carcasses of lions, zebras, white rhinos and crocodiles were recovered from the water.

Parks spokesman Raymond Travers said tests had indicated the poisioning had been caused by high levels of algae from hippos who had been living in the dam.

"We first picked up the problem during autumn and early winter of 2005 when carcasses were found in the region," he told AFP.

The large hippo densities "probably...