Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana, situated in the Great Rift valley in northern Kenya and protruding into Ethiopia, is the world's largest desert lake and its surrounded by volcanic rocks, home to crocodiles and scorpions, with Central Island in Lake Turkana being an active volcano and a World Heritage site. The lake provides for around 300,000 living nearby and supports an active fishing industry. It is about 180 miles long, although around eight thousand years ago it was around seventy miles longer and flowed northwards into the Nile.
Lake Turkana was the last of the great lakes to be 'discovered' in 1888 by the Austro-Hungarian explorer Count Samuel Teleki de Szek who named it Lake Rudolf after his friend the then Crown Prince of Austria, however its name was changed by the Kenyan government in 1975 to Lake Turkana after the Turkana tribe that inhabits its shores. Other tribes living close to lake Turkana include the Boran, the Gabbra, the Samburu, the Shangilla and the Rendilli, as well as the Luo and Somali.
Whilst Lake Turkana now has no outlet, its main source of replenishment of the twelve rivers that flow into the lake is the River Omo which accounts for between 80-90% of its influx. However the government of Ethiopia is constructing the huge Gibe 3 Dam on that river raising fears the Lake Turkana may dry up with serious implications for an already water scarce Kenya. The lake's second largest inflowing river, the Turkwel River, is also being dammed for hydroelectric power generation. The other main tributary is the river Kerio.
This video documentary provides an overview of Lake Turkana and the challenges it faces. After you've viewed it, why not check out and explore our interactive map of Lake Turkana below.
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