CASE STUDY: WATER QUALITY
Lake Turkana: a UNESCO World Heritage Site in danger
into Lake Turkana. Such disruptions will likely impact the lake’s wildlife and fish stocks on which these communities depend.
Lake Turkana is the world’s largest desert lake. Located in northern Kenya, it receives 90 per
In the past 30 years, the Lake Turkana basin has
cent of its fresh water from the Omo River in
also experienced significant land-cover and land-
Ethiopia. It is the most saline of Africa’s great
use changes. Forest area, for example, has
lakes and contributes to the livelihoods of more
decreased mostly at the expense of agriculture
than 300,000 people, including smallholders,
and woodland. The land-use changes and the
fishers and tourism operators. Lake Turkana is a
annual volume of, and patterns in, inflows into
major breeding ground for hippos, Nile
the lake have affected its turbidity, salinity, algal
crocodiles and more than 350 species of fish
productivity and habitats, all of which impact the
and birds, and was thus made a UNESCO World
lake’s fish populations (Ojwang and others, 2018)
Heritage Site in 1997. Due to its algal colouration,
and people’s livelihoods, which along with water
the lake is also commonly known as the Jade
quality, natural protected areas and World
Sea.
Heritage Sites are now at risk (National Geographic, 2015; Tadesse, 2015; Avery, 2018;
A series of hydropower dams are being
Ratner, 2020).
expanded along the Omo River and in the Lower Omo Valley (in Ethiopia), including Africa’s
The decade-long monitoring of turbidity and
highest dam, the Gilgel Gibe III. Although these
algal concentration using satellite data – also
dams are expected to double Ethiopia’s
available via the SDG indicator 6.6.1 app –
electricity output, supply water for industrial
highlights some of these complex issues and
farming and help expand sugar cultivation, they
how the priceless value of freshwater
are threatening Lake Turkana and its local
ecosystems is at risk globally.
communities. In fact, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (2018) has reported rapidly declining water levels downstream of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam since January 2015, which has disrupted water flows
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PROGRESS ON FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS - 2021
