Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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These fishermen already have soft bones from high fluoride levels in Lake Turkana. And like all desert water, the lake is vulnerable. Most of the lake's freshwater-some 90 percent-comes from the Omo River. Now the Ethiopians' plans for extensive development along the river, including a massive hydroelectric dam and water hungry sugar plantations, threatens to disrupt the Omo's eons-old flow and starve the lake. In the most dire scenarios, Lake Turkana will over the years slowly shrivel and die, turning the local population into refugees from an African dust bowl.

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RANDY OLSON
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Lake Turkana_National Geographic Magazine 4/2015
These fishermen already have soft bones from high fluoride levels in Lake Turkana. And like all desert water, the lake is vulnerable. Most of the lake's freshwater-some 90 percent-comes from the Omo River. Now the Ethiopians' plans for extensive development along the river, including a massive hydroelectric dam and water hungry sugar plantations, threatens to disrupt the Omo's eons-old flow and starve the lake. In the most dire scenarios, Lake Turkana will over the years slowly shrivel and die, turning the local population into refugees from an African dust bowl.