As food prices rise, the lands of rural communities are being snatched up for plantations at an alarming rate around the world. According to the World Bank, large agricultural land deals made up an area bigger than California in 2009 alone. A new report documents how the controversial Gibe III Dam is fueling landgrabs in Southwestern Ethiopia right now. These grabs will compound the dam's impacts on poor communities and their unique ecosystems.
The Omo River is the lifeline of the Lower Omo Valley and the only major source of water of Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake. About 500,000 indigenous people are eking out a living from the fragile ecosystems of the river and lake.
The Gibe III Dam, which is currently under construction, will disrupt the river's annual flood cycle and lower the water levels of Lake Turkana. Critics have long feared that once the dam is built, the Ethiopian government will establish plantations in the Omo Valley and use the regulated water flow to irrigate export crops. The government dismissed such fears as baseless, and argued that the dam would not reduce the amount of water in the Omo River and Lake Turkana.
Now that the dam is being built, the government is showing its true colors. An official map of the Lower Omo Valley delineates three blocks of land with a total of 245,000 hectares (close to 1,000 square miles) that will be turned into sugar plantations, to be managed by a state-owned sugar company. A briefing paper by the Oakland Institute, a research and advocacy organization, suggests that in addition, 11 smaller concessions have been awarded for private cotton plantations.
Growing thirsty crops such as sugar cane and cotton for the world market does not make sense in a region that is scarce in water and prone to hunger and resource conflicts. The dam and the associated land grabs will turn the Gibe III hydropower project into a social and environmental disaster on several accounts:
As the Oakland Institute documents, the land and water grabs in the Lower Omo Valley appear imminent. Access roads have already been built, and the people who live in the target area are constantly being harassed and intimidated by the Ethiopian army. As the Institute's researcher told us after a recent visit to the area, security forces regularly visit the local villages and beat up or detain people who don't support the sugar plantations. Many villagers, the researcher told us, now run for cover whenever outsiders appear near their settlements for fear of repression.
The sugar plantations in the Omo Valley are not an isolated case. In a separate report, the Oakland Institute estimated that the Ethiopian government has turned over 14,000 square miles of agricultural lands to investors since 2008 -- usually without any benefits for the local people. The World Bank documented large-scale agricultural land deals to the amount of 175,000 square miles for 2009 alone.
Ethiopia is the world's second largest recipient of development aid. The United States, the World Bank, the European Union and the United Kingdom are among its major donors. Their assistance supports a wide variety of activities, from food aid to the government budget from which the Gibe III Dam is being funded. These donors should no longer turn a blind eye to a project that will cause environmental collapse, hunger and conflict, and violates Ethiopia's international obligations.
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please you may like the most astonishing view of the river and surrounding but don't forget the horrifying images of our people on the time of rain fail.
as one of my brother lalibela said, you tell us about the effects of the environment but not a solution for all those troubles we are facing.
any way thanks for worrying for about 500,000 people while 90,000,000 are at stake.
The comments put against " Hager Fiker" are clear and understandable.
No sane citizen has negative outlook against himself or his country unless he or she is an enemy.
Here what we speak is not a question difference of ideas . Here we see naked national interest espionage and aggression by Western reactionary forces gang members ,River International -which is one of them . Long Live Ethiopia !
No surprise that you said the question is not of differences in ideas. You want your idea or none, and this is typical of the government. Can you please open up your ears and listen to what other stakeholders have to say, I mean Ethiopians, not the outside voices. But I doubt that you would hear any other voice, coz it is all quiet in Ethiopia, no one can speak out. For instance, a few months back, me and my co-workers were connived to contribute the usual one month salary for the mighty Abbay dam, and a few of us aired a slightly different opinion. What do we have within 30 minutes? ... A knock on our doors from the security forces... no need to finish the story. So, a different opinion is silenced by the security forces in person, or name-callers like yourself on the internet.
So, I say it is good that the Oakland Institute, and this online news paper open the discussion on the issue. I am not against constructing dams, they are in fact necessary. But their ecological and social impact need to be studied and discussed by stakeholders... Ethiopians. The government need to stop doing things secretly, forcing people out of their ancestral land trashing their livelihood, and damaging the environment. First the dam, then the sugar plantations, then maybe something else, and we the stakeholders, Ethiopias, are simply kept in the dark about all of it.
The international agencies are nothing more than an instrument of selfish western policies and strategies to the rest of the world. It is sad to see these western powers and their twisted political games destroy people and countries time and time again without accountability and consequence. They always have the big questions but never the big answers.
Poor countries have to use all the resources at their disposal to overcome their longstanding struggle with poverty. They do not need the blessing of no western power or their pet international agencies to do what they have to do to same end.
Ethiopia has the right to use her waters. the econo-socio-enviromental studies have been done by the current government. All these "concerned environmentalists" want to keep these developing nations in the dark while enjoying their well lit apartments/houses, air conditioned offices etc. please enough with the crocodile tears. Let the nation develop her resources so you dont' have to send "a dollar a day to feed a starving child"