Lake Turkana in Kenya soon to be destroyed.
- by: D.Baker
- recipient: Government of Ethiopia, various multinationals involved in Gibe 3 dams.
Lake Turkana, one of the largest salt lakes in the world....along with the lower Omo river valley, are about to be devastated by a project of 3 mega-dams on the Omo river in Ethiopia called the Gibe 3 dam project.
The series of dams to be built will seriously reduce the flow of the Omo River and deplete water levels to such an extent that most of the wildlife, fish etc. which live in the lake as well as the 300,000 indigenous people who live downstream on Lake Turkana, in Kenya, will no longer be able to survive.....causing extinction of species and an ancient way of life on one of the oldest lakes in the world.
People in modern and ancient form have lived on and around lake Turkana for millions of years.....ancient hominid evidence of this has been found around Lake Turkana and in the Omo river valley.....which feeds lake Turkana, by Louis Leakey, Richard Leakey and others.
Hundreds of thousands of others who live in the Omo river basin and follow flood cycle farming in the lower Omo will also be driven from their way of life when these three mega-dams stop the regular cycle of flooding which brings fertile soil sediments to the Omo river valley from the mountains upstream etc.....these flood sediments are what makes farming and grazing possible in the lower Omo river valley.
At least two other great lakes on earth have already been destroyed by damming and diversion of river water for farming/electricity.....The Aral Sea in Kazahkastan (formerly the Soviet Union), Lake Chad in sub-sahran Africa....both of these enormous lakes/seas and their wildlife have been almost completely annihilated by damming and water diversions for irrigation.
Most of these irrigation projects have been disastrous and have failed to irrigate as projected.....as well as wasting vast amounts of water through poor canal planning, evaporation etc.
Stagnant river and dam reservoir water.....caused by damming......are known to seriously increase malaria and other water bourne parasites around dams.....in some studies the increase is 6 fold.
500,000,000 people each year are sickened with malaria and 1,000,000 die each year from malaria.....90% of those killed are children.
There seems to be a suspicious rise in malaria worldwide that seems to parallel the building of mega-cities and mega-dams that divert and distort water drainage. This diversion of water drainage is known to create large amounts of stagnant water, which is prime breeding habitat for mosquitoes that spread malaria and other water bourne parasites.
Please see the below links to learn more about these ecological catastrophies...will we ever learn?
We the undersigned would like to voice protest over the Gibe 3 dam project and petition the Ethiopian government as well as various multinational dam engineering and Environmental Impact Assessment firms (EIA's) to reconsider this project based on more accurate and honest assessments of the potential human and environmental damage projected by numerous scientists and non-profit groups who are not on the payroll of this project.
http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/3923
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/59567/2009/09/15-102623-1.htm
http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/sucking-dry-an-african-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_sea
giant/http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/the-disappearance-of-the-aral-sea
http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/12/salton-sea-disaster.html
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/8785
Sign PetitionSign PetitionThe series of dams to be built will seriously reduce the flow of the Omo River and deplete water levels to such an extent that most of the wildlife, fish etc. which live in the lake as well as the 300,000 indigenous people who live downstream on Lake Turkana, in Kenya, will no longer be able to survive.....causing extinction of species and an ancient way of life on one of the oldest lakes in the world.
People in modern and ancient form have lived on and around lake Turkana for millions of years.....ancient hominid evidence of this has been found around Lake Turkana and in the Omo river valley.....which feeds lake Turkana, by Louis Leakey, Richard Leakey and others.
Hundreds of thousands of others who live in the Omo river basin and follow flood cycle farming in the lower Omo will also be driven from their way of life when these three mega-dams stop the regular cycle of flooding which brings fertile soil sediments to the Omo river valley from the mountains upstream etc.....these flood sediments are what makes farming and grazing possible in the lower Omo river valley.
At least two other great lakes on earth have already been destroyed by damming and diversion of river water for farming/electricity.....The Aral Sea in Kazahkastan (formerly the Soviet Union), Lake Chad in sub-sahran Africa....both of these enormous lakes/seas and their wildlife have been almost completely annihilated by damming and water diversions for irrigation.
Most of these irrigation projects have been disastrous and have failed to irrigate as projected.....as well as wasting vast amounts of water through poor canal planning, evaporation etc.
Stagnant river and dam reservoir water.....caused by damming......are known to seriously increase malaria and other water bourne parasites around dams.....in some studies the increase is 6 fold.
500,000,000 people each year are sickened with malaria and 1,000,000 die each year from malaria.....90% of those killed are children.
There seems to be a suspicious rise in malaria worldwide that seems to parallel the building of mega-cities and mega-dams that divert and distort water drainage. This diversion of water drainage is known to create large amounts of stagnant water, which is prime breeding habitat for mosquitoes that spread malaria and other water bourne parasites.
Please see the below links to learn more about these ecological catastrophies...will we ever learn?
We the undersigned would like to voice protest over the Gibe 3 dam project and petition the Ethiopian government as well as various multinational dam engineering and Environmental Impact Assessment firms (EIA's) to reconsider this project based on more accurate and honest assessments of the potential human and environmental damage projected by numerous scientists and non-profit groups who are not on the payroll of this project.
http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/3923
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/59567/2009/09/15-102623-1.htm
http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/sucking-dry-an-african-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_sea
giant/http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/the-disappearance-of-the-aral-sea
http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/12/salton-sea-disaster.html
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/8785
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