On 13 June 2019 The Guardian reported that the California-based Oakland Institute said Africa’s tallest dam and irrigated sugar plantations were “wreaking havoc” in southern Ethiopia’s lower Omo Valley and that tens of thousands of people faced starvation and conflict as river flows and grazing land changed.
The story said residents of towns such as Kangaten were collecting water from a river blocked by the dam, and it quoted the think tank’s warning that state development plans left indigenous livelihoods in the balance even as the projects promised power and industrial crops.
Kept as indigenous rights and development archive, the Guardian piece dates international attention to the Omo Valley impact debate in June 2019.
Sources: The Guardian