The Ganale Dorya River is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo

Aleta Wendo

Aleta Wendo is a town in southern Ethiopia. Located in a fertile and forested area near Lake Abaya, not far from the sources of the Ganale Dorya and Dawa Rivers in the Sidama Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of with an...

, the Dawa flows south and east to join with the Dawa

Dawa River

The Dawa River is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Dawa flows south and east to join with the Ganale Dorya at the border with Somalia to become the Jubba. The river forms part of the Ethiopia–Kenya border and part of the Ethiopia–Somalia...

 at the border with Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

 to become the Jubba

Jubba River

The Jubba River is a river in southern Somalia. It begins at the border with Ethiopia, where the Dawa and Ganale Dorya rivers meet, and flows directly south to the Indian Ocean, where it empties at the Goobweyn juncture.-History:...

. Tributaries include the Welmel

Welmel River

The Welmel is a river of eastern Ethiopia. It is a tributary of the Ganale Dorya River.- See also :* List of Ethiopian rivers...

, Weyib

Weyib River

Weyib River is a river of eastern Ethiopia. It rises in the Bale Mountains east of Goba in the Oromia Region, flowing east to pass through the Sof Omar Caves, then to the southeast until it joins the Ganale Dorya River in the Somali Region....

 (also known as Gestro), Dumale, Doya, Hawas and the Hambala. The Del Verme Falls is a notable feature of its middle course.

According to materials published by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

, the Genale has a total length of 858 kilometers, of which 480 are inside that country.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources, describes the catchment area of the Ganale Dorya-Dawa river basin as 171,050 square kilometers in size, with an annual runoff of 5.80 billion cubic meters, and specific discharge of 1.2 liters a second per square kilometer. The catchment area is estimated as having the potential to irrigate 1070 square kilometers, and to generate 9270 gigawatt/hours.

The Genale Dorya is historically important because it served as the boundary between Sidamo

Sidamo Province

Sidamo was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Irgalem, and after 1978 at Awasa. It was named after an ethnic group native to Ethiopia, called the Sidamo, or more particularly, Sidama, who are located in the south-central part of that country...

 and Bale Province

Bale Province, Ethiopia

Bale is the name of two former polities located in the southeastern part of modern Ethiopia.- The medieval dependency of Bale :...

s. The confluence of the Ganale Dorya with the Dawa is notable as the starting point for the boundary between Ethiopia and Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 to the west, and the starting point for the boundary between Ethiopia and Somalia to the east. The Battle of Genale Doria

Battle of Genale Doria

The Battle of Genale Doria was a battle on the "southern front" fought during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The battle consisted almost entirely of air attacks by the Italian Royal Air Force against an advancing and then withdrawing Ethiopian army under Ras Desta Damtu...

was fought to the south of its course.