Mago National Park and Tama Wildlife Reserve are located at the eastern bank of Omo river.

There is Lake Chew Bahir surrounded by Stephanie Wildlife Sanctuary located at the eastern border of this zone.

West of the Omo is the most sparsely populated part of Ethiopia, inhabited by nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups.

A 1996 report described the infrastructure of the Zone as "weak and for the most part non-existent; this is a disadvantage inherited from historical neglect of a typical marginal region."

Social diversity therefore compounds the existing problems of isolation, acute shortage of basic infrastructure as well as scarcity of professional and technical man-power.

[2] According to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) 1,364 tons of coffee were produced in South Omo in the year ending in 2005, representing 1.36% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR)'s output and 0.6% of Ethiopia's total output.