A massive hydroelectric dam threatens the tribes of the Lower Omo River
The tribes have lived in this area for centuries and have developed techniques to survive in a challenging environment.
They have not been consulted about the dam and stand to lose their livelihoods based on the river’s natural flood cycle.
For years the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley have suffered from the progressive loss of access to and control of their lands. Two national parks were set up in the 1960s and 1970s where they are excluded from managing the resources. Tourists can go on safari and hunt for game on tribal lands yet the tribal peoples themselves are banned from hunting. This has resulted in increased malnutrition.
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| A Hamar family sit outside their home, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The Gibe III dam that is being constructed will destroy their people's livelihood.
© Magda Rakita/Survival |
In the 1980s, part of their territory was turned into a state-run irrigated farm and recently the government has begun leasing out huge tracts of tribal land to foreign companies and governments so that they grow cash crops including biofuels.
The tribal peoples who have been using the land for generations to grow their own subsistence crops and to graze their livestock, have had no say in the matter.
Although the Ethiopian Constitution guarantees tribal peoples the right to ‘full consultation’ and to ‘the expression of views in the planning and implementations of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly’, in practice consultation is rarely carried out fully and appropriately.
The Lower Omo Valley peoples make all public decisions after extensive community meetings among all adults. Very few speak Amharic, the national language, and literacy levels are the lowest in the country which means they have little access to information about developments which affect them.
A USAID official who visited the Lower Omo in January 2009 to assess the impacts of the Gibe III dam reported that the indigenous communities knew either nothing or virtually nothing about the project.
With the aim of limiting debate on controversial policies and restricting awareness of human rights, the government published a decree in February 2009 stating that any charity or NGO which receives more than 10% of its funding from foreign sources (which is virtually every charity in Ethiopia) cannot promote human and democratic rights.
In July 2009, the Southern Region’s Justice Bureau revoked the licences of 41 local ‘Community Associations’, accusing them of not co-operating with government policy. Many observers believe the revocation is really an attempt by the government to stamp out discussion of and opposition to Gibe III.