Lake Turkana

የልማት ጎርፍ በኦሞ ወንዝ ላይ

Monday, February 24, 2014
photo by Alison Jones for No Water No Life በኢትዮጵያ በታችኛው የኦሞ ሸለቆ እየተገነቡ ያሉት ተያያዥ የልማት ፕሮጀክቶች በወንዙ የውኃ ፍሰት እና ከወንዙ ጋር ህይወቱን አቆራኝቶ በሚኖረው የአካባቢው ህብረተሰብ ዘንድ ታላቅ አደጋን ጋርጦ ይገኛል፡፡ እንደዚሁም በጊቤ ሶስት የኤሌክትሪክ ግድብ ግንባታ እና ከዚሁ ጋር በተያያዘ መልኩ እየተከናወነ ባለው ከፍተኛ የመስኖ ልማት ልማት ስራ

Omo River, Lake Turkana at Risk from Dams and Plantations

Fishermen and their dried catch, Lake Turkana
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Dams and irrigated plantations being built in Ethiopia will bring major changes to the flow of the Lower Omo River, which in turn will harm ecosystem functions and local livelihoods all the way to the river's terminus at Lake Turkana in Kenya. More dams are planned for the basin that would compound the damages. Here we outline some of the basic changes that can be expected as a result of these developments, and include resources on where to get more information. The video below illustrates the hydrological risks the dam and plantations bring to the Lower Omo and Lake Turkana: Watch an Amhar

Can Lake Turkana Be Saved?

Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana Sean Avery is a man on a mission. The Kenya-based hydrologist and civil engineer is the leading authority on the hydrological workings of Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake, and he's extremely worried about its future. The cause for his concern is a boom in river-crippling projects being built upstream in Ethiopia, on a river that is the primary water source for the lake. The huge Gibe III Dam and related irrigation developments now under construction in the Lower Omo Valley will regulate and divert large quantities of the lake's inflow into the lake, which could dry u

Gibe III's Impacts on Lake Turkana

Fishing at Lake Turkana
Thursday, January 10, 2013
East Africa's “Aral Sea” in the Making?“If Ethiopia completes the Gibe III Dam and continues to press ahead with large-scale irrigation developments, the result will be a cascade of hydrological, ecological and socio-economic impacts that will generate a region-wide crisis for indigenous livelihoods and biodiversity and thoroughly destabilize the Ethiopia-Kenyan borderlands around Lake Turkana. The long-term effect could parallel what has happened to Central Asia’s Aral Sea, one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters.” So begins a paper that describes how hydrological change

UNESCO World Heritage Committee: "Halt All Construction on the GIBE III Dam"

Thursday, July 21, 2011
In its 2011 annual meeting, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged Ethiopia to "immediately halt all construction on the Gibe III dam" based on the potential impacts it may have on lake levels at the Lake Turkana World Heritage site in Kenya. The IUCN and the World Heritage Centre will send a monitoring mission to the property at the end of 2011 to evaluate the situation. Lake Turkana National Parks (Kenya)The World Heritage Committee Decision 35 COM 7B.3 Having examined Document WHC-11/35.COM/7B.Add, Expresses its utmost concern about the proposed construction of the GIBE III dam on the Om

Ethiopia's Gibe III Dam: Sowing Hunger and Conflict

Ethiopia Factsheet
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Updated factsheet The Omo River is a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in southwest Ethiopia and northern Kenya. The Gibe III Hydropower Dam, now under construction, will dramatically alter the Omo River's flood cycle, affecting ecosystems and livelihoods all the way down to the world's largest desert lake, Kenya’s Lake Turkana. The Lower Omo Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to an estimated 200,000 agro-pastoralists from eight distinct indigenous peoples who depend on the Omo River’s annual flood to support river-bank cultivation and grazing lands for liv

Gibe III Threatens World Heritage Sites

Monday, August 9, 2010
Letter to the Secretariat of the World Heritage Centre (UNESCO) We are writing to raise concerns about two endangered World Heritage sites. Lake Turkana in Kenya faces significant threats to its environmental health due to the ongoing construction of a large dam being built upstream, the Gibe 3 Dam in Ethiopia. The dam also threatens the cultural landscape of the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia.Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake, was chosen as a World Heritage site because of its rich ecosystem, whose “diverse bird life and desert environment offers an exceptional laboratory for st

Field Report from Lake Turkana

Monday, June 21, 2010
The people of the Turkana region in northwestern Kenya are in a fight and the future of their unique cultures. Our recent visit to the region revealed that communities around Lake Turkana are saying no to the Gibe 3 Dam, and standing together to take action to protect the lake.The lake is the best defense against hunger and conflict for 300,000 people who live in the parched region. This fragile oasis is the heart of an isolated world where traditional lifestyles are unraveling in the face of climate change and the resulting reduction in natural resources. The Gibe 3 Dam threatens to destroy t

Defending Lake Turkana

Turkana residents protest Gibe dam
The Gibe 3 Dam, now under construction on the Omo River in Ethiopia, is already fanning tensions over natural resources, all the way downstream to Kenya. By dramatically changing water flows in the river, the dam will wreak ecological and social havoc for half a million people living downstream of it, including Kenyan communities around Lake Turkana, which gets virtually all of its water flow from the Omo. Local activists are at the forefront, and working hard to keep this critical fight in the public eye. Watch our slideshow narrated by Ikal Angelei of the Kenya-based Friends of Lake Turkana

Lake Turkana Under Threat

Lake Turkana
Visit Friends of Lake Turkana Lake Turkana is a miraculous anomaly of life-giving water in a parched and unforgiving land. Formed millions of years ago in the tectonic upheavals that created East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Turkana is the largest permanent desert lake in the world. The lake is home to the world's largest population of Nile crocodiles, hippos, and hundreds of bird and fish species. Its shores have revealed the oldest-known fossil remains of Homo habilis. Today, more than a quarter million indigenous peoples from at least ten tribes have become masters of wresting sustenance f

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