Turkana Basin Institute

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The Turkana Basin Institute field station at Ileret which began in March 2007 about 5 km from the Ileret Center is now fully operational. Ileret is close to the Kenya Ethiopia border on the east side of Lake Turkana, in the north of Kenya. This remote location makes things quite costly. Trucks carrying construction supplies sometimes can take a full week or more to get there.

Six modified shipping containers were initially trucked up and dropped in pairs about 12 feet apart on the ridge not far from the Ileret airfield. Metal roofs were constructed over the containers and the space between them provides shade and the containers safe storage for food and equipment. These serve as the main entrance office and tent store, temporary fossil laboratory and education center, and the third unit serves as the dining area and study library. All these units are placed on sandstone slabs and over look the lake and the dramatic Lapur mountain range and dinosaur deposits to the west.

The accommodation facilities vary from dormitory units, to tent lines with communal bathroom blocks, and finally four fully equipped spacious tents with ablution blocks to the rear. The camp in full operation can accommodate 60 to 70 people, catering from two kitchens and two mess areas. All of the buildings have been constructed using locally collected sandstone slabs.

The electrical supply is generated by a combination of solar and wind, which charges a bank of batteries that supply inverted 240 volt power to the station. Freezers, fridge and Internet connection are run off this power supply so the facility is virtually carbon neutral. Currently, the water is collected and trucked in from the lake shore, 7 km away and drinking water is processed using a water desalinization plant. Later this year, the plan is to collect rain water from the roofs of the buildings which will provide most, if not all of the water needed to run the entire facility. Fuel, food, fresh produce and other supplies must be trucked in by road or flown in from Nairobi.

In April 2008 the construction of a large laboratory for the preparation and analysis of the fossils was completed. This lab will provide facilities for year round preparation of the fossils collected on the east side by local skilled men and women from Ileret. Additional roofing has also been brought in to cover the prefabricated housing units from which rain water will be collected and stored in large underground tanks.

The construction for the facility on the west side of Lake Turkana, TBI -Turkwell, started in April 2008. It is anticipated that this base camp will be completed by summer 2009.