Ask the World Heritage Committee to Protect Lake Turkana

Date: 
Thursday, June 25, 2015

As a World Heritage Site, Kenya’s Lake Turkana stands among such treasures as the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and the Great Wall of China.

It’s the world’s largest desert lake, a spectacular site whose fossil finds have “contributed more to the understanding of human ancestry than any other site in the world.” Its waters sustain more than 300,000 indigenous people who depend on it for their farms, cattle and fishing in an otherwise forbidding environment.

The lake is threatened by hydropower and irrigation schemes on the Omo River in neighboring Ethiopia. The Omo River accounts for nearly 90% of the lake’s inflow, and dams and sugar plantations threaten to choke off this water source, bringing famine and ecological collapse to the region.

From June 28-July 8, 2015, the UN World Heritage Committee will discuss the fate of Lake Turkana. Local communities are demanding that this treasure be protected from a human-made disaster. Will you stand with them?

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