Change it self does not destroy a culture.  All societies are constantly evolving.  A culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain it's spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo.                                                                                                                                                  —Wade Davis

Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley is home to roughly twelve indigenous tribal groups all living self-sustainably.  Most practice flood-recession agriculture, and depend on the river’s natural flood cycle to replenish their land for farming and the grazing of livestock.

Ethiopian government contracts have been awarded to foreign construction firms to build hydroelectric dams on the Omo River for energy exports.  The Gibe III Dam, the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, is now operational, and is depriving all downriver communities of the annual floods necessary to sustain their flood-recession riverbank agriculture. 

The Omo River's flow terminates at Kenya’s Lake Turkana and supplies 90% of its water.  The entire watershed of the Omo River Valley and Lake Turkana is now under threat.  Lake Turkana was recently inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites ‘in danger’. In addition, vast tracts of rich farmland have been leased to foreign corporations to grow cotton and sugarcane—all for export.  Land grabs and villagization are displacing the Omo River communities, forcing them off their ancestral lands without compensation.  They are no longer able to be self-sustaining. 

For more information on the environmental, political and human rights issues facing the people of the Omo River Valley and Lake Turkana watershed, please visit the following non-profits.