The World Heritage Committee on Thursday inscribed Lake Turkana National Parks on the list of World Heritage in Danger.
The panel expressed concern over the disruptive effect of Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam on the flow and ecosystem of Lake Turkana and the Kuraz Sugar Development Project, which poses further threat to the site.
In June 2011 the Committee called for the construction of the dam to be halted and requested Ethiopia and Kenya to invite a World Heritage Centre monitoring mission to review the dam's impact on L.Turkana.
Since the construction of the hydroelectric dam along the Omo River, the number of fish species in L.Turkana has significantly reduced, posing as a threat to rob thousands of local residents their livelihood.
Human Rights Watch also raised concern last year over the alarming reduction in water levels.
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According to the United States Department of Agriculture, L.Turkana’s water level had dropped by approximately 1.5m since January 2015.
L.Turkana National Parks are constituted of Sibiloi National Park, the South Island and the Central Island National Parks.
The three National Parks serve as a stopover for migrant aquatic birds and provide major breeding grounds for the Nile crocodile, hippopotamus and a variety of venomous snakes.
The area is believed to be the birthplace of mankind hosting fossil deposits at Koobi Fora.
“The Kobi Fora deposits contain pre-human, mammalian, molluscan and other fossil remains and have contributed more to the understanding of human ancestry and paleo-environment than any other site in the world,” stated UNESCO.
The Lake is the most saline lake in East Africa and the largest desert lake in the world.
The Lake Turkana National Parks site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997.
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