(April 24, 2012, TreeHugger)--Lake Turkana is the largest desert lake in the world: It sits in arid
northern Kenya and is part of a water system that communities in Kenya,
Ethiopia, and South Sudan depend on for survival.
The World Heritage Site is also home to crocodiles, hippos, and fish. But Ethiopia has started to construct a dam—the Gibe 3 along the Omo River—that would change the entire lake ecosystem. It would also lead to increased conflict in a region that is already extremely fragile.
Ikal Angelei didn't want to sit back and watch this happen, so she started leading her community in a fight against the dam. They've had major success in the last few years, including convincing the World Bank, European Investment Bank and African Development Bank to back off the project, which is now on hold for lack of financing. Angelei spoke with me about Gibe 3's threats to the Turkana region a few days before her Goldman Environmental Prize was announced.
What are the biggest threats that the dam poses to the Turkana region and people?
The Gibe 3 dam is built on the Omo river, which is shared between Kenya and Ethiopia and is the main source of water for Lake Turkana.
Lake Turkana is a closed basin lake, and with climate change, you already have increased evaporation, which leads to alteration of the chemical composition of the lake—and alters the ecosystem, and the fish and all the animals living in it. The salinity of the lake increases, and when you limit the flow of the river, it doesn't come down with the nutrients, and that reduces the nutrients for fish. That means livelihoods are lost.
Another thing is the water table of the region is dependent on the water table of the lake, and with this dam, the lake levels will drop. Then groundwater also reduces. And with that, the way of life of people—because we are pastoralists—is totally destroyed. We depend on groundwater. It's like having a three-legged stool and then you remove one leg of the stool.
And the river—it doesn't flow in one direct path, it covers the whole region. It allows for pasture to grow in areas where communities are living. So you affect not just the lake directly but the region around the lake because if the water's not reaching there, then there's no pasture. Communities then have to move to where the pasture is—concentrating all these communities in one region where the little amount of pasture is. So such a project would increase the conflict in an already fragile region. Read more from TreeHugger »
The World Heritage Site is also home to crocodiles, hippos, and fish. But Ethiopia has started to construct a dam—the Gibe 3 along the Omo River—that would change the entire lake ecosystem. It would also lead to increased conflict in a region that is already extremely fragile.
Ikal Angelei didn't want to sit back and watch this happen, so she started leading her community in a fight against the dam. They've had major success in the last few years, including convincing the World Bank, European Investment Bank and African Development Bank to back off the project, which is now on hold for lack of financing. Angelei spoke with me about Gibe 3's threats to the Turkana region a few days before her Goldman Environmental Prize was announced.
What are the biggest threats that the dam poses to the Turkana region and people?
The Gibe 3 dam is built on the Omo river, which is shared between Kenya and Ethiopia and is the main source of water for Lake Turkana.
Lake Turkana is a closed basin lake, and with climate change, you already have increased evaporation, which leads to alteration of the chemical composition of the lake—and alters the ecosystem, and the fish and all the animals living in it. The salinity of the lake increases, and when you limit the flow of the river, it doesn't come down with the nutrients, and that reduces the nutrients for fish. That means livelihoods are lost.
Another thing is the water table of the region is dependent on the water table of the lake, and with this dam, the lake levels will drop. Then groundwater also reduces. And with that, the way of life of people—because we are pastoralists—is totally destroyed. We depend on groundwater. It's like having a three-legged stool and then you remove one leg of the stool.
And the river—it doesn't flow in one direct path, it covers the whole region. It allows for pasture to grow in areas where communities are living. So you affect not just the lake directly but the region around the lake because if the water's not reaching there, then there's no pasture. Communities then have to move to where the pasture is—concentrating all these communities in one region where the little amount of pasture is. So such a project would increase the conflict in an already fragile region. Read more from TreeHugger »
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