Quantifying the Negative Impacts of Damming River Omo on Lake Turkana Communities’ Consequent Conflicts: Brief Overview

The aim of this study was to outline and do a preliminary quantification of the impact of damming the
Omo River on the communities of people settled around Lake Turkana and the potential resulting
conflicts. Lake Turkana, Africa’s fourth largest lake and the world’s largest desert lake, is in Kenya’s
northern arid and semi-arid lands. The lake is mainly sustained by the inflows of Ethiopia’s River
Omo. The people in this region subsist mainly through pastoralism. The human and livestock
population in this region has significantly risen over time. The Gibe III Project which included damming
of the Omo River to create one of the world’s largest dams was completed in 2015. By the end of the
project, the annual Omo River’s inflow to Lake Turkana was significantly reduced, following the filling
of the reservoir formed by the River Omo’s gorge. The project threatens the livelihood of communities
depending on Lake Turkana and its ecosystem. Remote sensing images were used to determine the
changes of the lake and surrounding land. The GIS imagery used for this purpose was acquired from
the USGS website. The images for different periods of time were paired for visual comparison and
appreciation of changes with respect to years. Observations of imagery and preliminary
measurements indicate significant lake boundary changes, indicating an overall decline. This decline
has potential deleterious impact of the sustainability and livelihood of the people in areas surrounding
Lake Turkana.