Environmental and Social Impact Assessment - Gibe III

Gibe III – Environmental and Social Impact Assessment 300 ENV R CS 002 C - A9003099
The cultivated land in the upper catchments is usually found on the uplands. In the valley bottom the land is
mainly classified hydrologically as rangeland. Going downstream another important tributary is found from
the west, the Gojeb River. It drains uplands that have been less intensively used for agriculture than the area
around Jima to the NE. The prevailing vegetation of the Gojeb headwaters is wooded shrubland. The Gibe
River is known as the Omo River in its lower reaches, south-western from the confluence with the Gojeb
River. Downstream the confluence with the Denchiya River, which is anyway outside the area under
investigation, the Omo River changes its character in traversing the flood plain leading to Lake Turkana as a
well-defined meandering river channel.
Many of the rivers rise in plateau areas at an elevation above 2000 m a.s.l and parts of the watershed are
higher than 3000 m asl. The Gibe itself rises at an elevation of 2000 m a.s.l and crosses the 1000 m asl
contour between the Megecha and the Gojeb tributaries. To the west of the river basin the watershed reaches
an elevation of 3000 m a.s.l between the Gojeb and the Gilgel Gibe River.
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