EDITORIAL
Anonymous Nyangatom, Jane Baldwin, 2011
This River Provides for Us: One Woman's Story
Lori Pottinger for World Rivers Review Vol. 16 No. 1
March 2011
More than 500,000 indigenous people in two countries are threatened by the construction of the Gibe III Dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia. If built, the dam would destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Lower Omo Valley and Kenya's Lake Turkana region. This is one woman's story from that struggle. For safety reasons, her identity and tribe have been changed.
Kara, Jane Baldwin, 2014
A Changing Omo River Valley
Lori Pottinger for International Rivers
October 28, 2014
People of our village and other villages, we don't want to lose this river, to lose our land, our forests. This is our original place. What would you think if someone came to your home area and said, 'You go, I want to take your home and land for my own project?' Would you like that if someone came and just moved you from your home, from your land? Would you like that? That is what is waiting us. What we know is we just have to wait and see what is going to happen with this river. If the government comes, they should just kill us, here, next to our river.
– Kara woman from Lower Omo Valley, interviewed by Jane Baldwin
Further reading:
Notes From The Field | Jane Baldwin
Oakland Institute
Sustainability: at What Cost?
Simon Ferrigno for EcoTextile Magazine Issue No: 64
December 2014 / January 2015
Ecotextile News has received disturbing information which links proposed new organic cotton projects in the Lower Omo Valley, southern Ethiopia, with land grabs, the removal of populations, and the destruction of biodiversity.
Both photographs: Kara Korcho Village, Omo River Valley Ethiopia
Jane Baldwin 2009 / 2014
Photo story: Ethiopian cotton and land grabs
Stacey Dove for EcoTextile
November 5, 2014
Omo Valley – These striking images show before and after pictures in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, where proposed organic cotton projects have been linked with land grabs of virgin uncultivated land, and the removal of populations and human rights abuses. The projects have clear connections with a leading Turkish textile manufacturer, and Ecotextile News is verifying whether organic cotton supply arrangements from the projects are already in place with three major western retailers.