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Open Access 2017 | Open Access | Buch

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

verfasst von: Claudia J. Carr

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Über dieses Buch

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license.
This book offers a devastating look at deeply flawed development processes driven by international finance, African governments and the global consulting industry. It examines major river basin development underway in the semi-arid borderlands of Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan and its disastrous human rights consequences for a half-million indigenous people. The volume traces the historical origins of Gibe III megadam construction along the Omo River in Ethiopia—in turn, enabling irrigation for commercial-scale agricultural development and causing radical reduction of downstream Omo and (Kenya's) Lake Turkana waters. Presenting case studies of indigenous Dasanech and northernmost Turkana livelihood systems and Gibe III linked impacts on them, the author predicts agropastoral and fishing economic collapse, region-wide hunger with exposure to disease epidemics, irreversible natural resource destruction and cross-border interethnic armed conflict spilling into South Sudan. The book identifies fundamental failings of government and development bank impact assessments, including their distortion or omission of mandated transboundary assessment, cumulative effects of the Gibe III dam and its linked Ethiopia-Kenya energy transmission 'highway' project, key hydrologic and human ecological characteristics, major earthquake threat in the dam region and widespread expropriation and political repression. Violations of internationally recognized human rights, especially by the Ethiopian government but also the Kenyan government, are extensive and on the increase—with collaboration by the development banks, in breach of their own internal operational procedures. A policy crossroads has now emerged. The author presents the alternative to the present looming catastrophe—consideration of development suspension in order to undertake genuinely independent transboundary assessment and a plan for continued development action within a human rights framework—forging a sustainable future for the indigenous peoples now directly threatened and for their respective eastern Africa states.

Claudia Carr’s book is a treasure of detailed information gathered over many years concerning river basin development of the Omo River in Ethiopia and its impact on the peoples of the lower Omo Basin and the Lake Turkana region in Kenya. It contains numerous maps, charts, and photographs not previously available to the public. The book is highly critical of the environmental and human rights implications of the Omo River hydropower projects on both the local ethnic communities in Ethiopia and on the downstream Turkana in Kenya.

David Shinn Former Ambassador to Ethiopia and to Burkina Faso Adjust Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington D.C.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

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Chapter 1. At Stake with River Basin Development in Eastern Africa

Abstract

River basin development in Africa has nearly unparalleled significance for the future of entire nations. Most major hydrodam projects undertaken in the continent have produced intense controversy, particularly over their socioeconomic and environmental impacts. In eastern Africa, river basin development is producing a major humanitarian and human rights crisis for a half million indigenous people in the border region of Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan. This crisis stems from developments in the Omo River basin of southwestern Ethiopia, with major international support. Construction of the Gibe III hydrodam—one of the world’s tallest—is primarily geared to the production of hydroelectricity for the benefit of commercial and financial interests within Ethiopia and energy export throughout eastern Africa, as well as to major irrigated commercial agricultural development along the Omo River. The crisis at hand is an international one, especially since the Omo River is a transboundary watercourse—flowing from the Ethiopian highlands to its terminus within Kenya at that nation’s Lake Turkana, where it provides most of the lake’s water. The combined hydrodam and large-scale irrigation agriculture development would cause radical reduction of both river flow volume and lake level—thus destroying pastoral, agropastoral and fishing livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people dependent on these waters. Catastrophic level collapse of survival systems in the region would usher in major new inter-ethnic, cross-border armed conflict as communities are forced to fight over the region’s vanishing resources. Major human rights violations involving national governments and key international aid agencies are already underway.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 2. The Persistent Paradigm for ‘Modernizing’ River Basins: Institutions and Policies in Ethiopia

Abstract

In view of the nearly unprecedented level of destruction of human life and natural resources from dam development, the question arises as to how such a policy could come into play without major questioning and challenge. The following is an effort to answer this question, by tracing the trajectory of the river basin development policy involving the Ethiopian state and international development forces—from its beginnings to the Gibe III dam. Citing alleged priorities of the ‘national interest,’ and programs for economic ‘growth and transformation,’ the Ethiopian government and international development banks, together with Kenyan government cooperation, have for decades actively pursued Omo basin hydrodam and dam enabled agricultural development. The nexus of institutions most central to the design, implementation and legitimation of major hydrodams and their associated river basin development is structured in such a way as to prioritize macro economic and political objectives with the externalization of the well-being—in the Ethiopia case, the very survival—of local residents who are among the most marginalized and vulnerable to destruction from this development.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 3. The Seismic Threat to the Gibe III Dam: A Disaster in Waiting

Abstract

The Gibe III dam is located near the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), the seismically active northern arm of the East African Rift (EAR), which is capable of producing large magnitude, destructive earthquakes. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Regional Office for Central and East Africa estimates there is a 20 % risk of 7 or 8 magnitude earthquakes occurring within the next 50 years in the MER. Earthquakes of these magnitudes pose significant threat to dams, through direct collapse or landslides triggering collapse. Collapse of the Gibe III dam would result in catastrophic loss of human life, livestock, wildlife and environments in the downstream riverine and Lake Turkana regions, exceeding the worst known dam failure in history—the Vaiont disaster in Italy. Even more moderate seismic events, combined with highly probable major landslides, sediment buildup and pressure from impounded water behind the dam threaten dam stability. The GOE discounts the seismic danger to the planned Gibe III dam, ignoring key geological information. The international development banks and bilateral agencies engaged with feasibility and impact studies as well as funding of the project—directly and indirectly—also ignore available data pointing to major seismic risk.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 4. Transboundary Survival Systems: A Profile of Vulnerability

Abstract

The transboundary region is culturally diverse, with indigenous languages of Cushitic, Eastern Nilotic, and Omotic and Afroasiatic origin. Several ethnic groups—the Nyangatom, Turkana and Toposa—are members of the Karamojong Cluster of cultures and speak mutually intelligible languages. The Dasanech, on the other hand, are Cushitic in linguistic affiliation. At the core of the region’s indigenous economies are longstanding survival systems that are highly adapted to shifting environmental and social conditions, with ethnic groups linked through complex exchange networks. In recent decades, increasing dispossession and marginalization imposed by powerful external political and economic powers since colonial times have recently forced much of the region’s population—particularly the Dasanech and northern Turkana—to settle at the Omo River or Lake Turkana as a last option means of survival. Despite centuries of resilience from even the most difficult times, these groups have now been pushed into extreme dependency on these two major water bodies and they have greatly increased vulnerability, even to stresses once familiar to them. They are now vulnerable in the extreme to massive scale destruction of their survival systems, with region-wide hunger and new mortality caused by the Gibe III dam and dam enabled irrigated agriculture along the Omo.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 5. Components of Catastrophe: Social and Environmental Consequences of Omo River Basin Development

Abstract

The Gibe III dam and its associated agricultural development would cause radical reduction of Omo River flow and inflow to Lake Turkana, as well as elimination of the Omo River annual flood—all essential to the survival of a half million residents of the lower Omo basin and the Lake Turkana region. These major changes would destroy the Omo riverine natural resource systems—eliminating ‘last resort’ grazing lands for livestock, flood recession agriculture and fishing habitats throughout the lowermost Omo basin. The impending destruction of indigenous survival systems is heightened by the Ethiopian government’s expropriation of tens of thousands of villagers for large-scale, irrigated commercial agricultural enterprises, accompanied by political repression of communities through-out the region. Pastoralists and fishers residing near the western shoreline of Kenya’s Lake Turkana also face economic collapse—primarily due to radical lake level drop causing destruction of fish habitat, lakeside grazing for livestock and potable water. As in the lower Omo basin, these conditions would produce massive scale hunger along with widespread disease. Rapid escalation of armed conflict in the cross-border region would ensue as ethnic groups battle over vanishing food sources.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 6. The Rush to Rationalize: Public Policies and Impact Assessments

Abstract

The common interests of the Ethiopian government, international development banks and global consulting firms in promoting, implementing and legitimizing the Gibe III dam and its associated development are starkly apparent in environmental and socioeconomic studies and impact assessments. None of them address the actual impact area of the Gibe III dam project—namely, one including human and environmental effects of the project in the tri-nation Ethiopia/Kenya/South Sudan transboundary region. The Ethiopian government (GOE) downstream impact assessment is invalidated by its major omissions, misrepresentations, and fabrications. These failings include false assertions of ‘disastrous’ Omo River floods ‘requiring’ river regulation floods which do not occur; misrepresentations of Omo basin environmental hydrology and socioeconomy; and exclusion of the impacts of Gibe III dependent, large-scale irrigated agriculture. Global consulting industry assessments of the dam commissioned by the European Investment Bank and African Development Bank (AFDB) do not significantly challenge GOE failings. Instead they offer primarily ‘suggestions’ for future consideration, rather than the identification of analysis that must be conducted before approval of any impact assessment. They pave the way for the World Bank and AFDB to violate their own human rights protocols by funding an infrastructure to allow Ethiopia to export hydrodam generated electricity.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 7. The Dasanech of the Lowermost Omo Basin: From Adaptation to Development Debacle

Abstract

The decline of Dasanech pastoral economy in recent decades, due to increasing marginalization by powerful external political and economic forces, has forced the majority of Dasanech to move to areas along the Omo River and its active delta or around the northeastern shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Radical reduction of river flow volume, lake retreat and elimination of the river’s annual flood brought about by the Gibe III dam, together with dam enabled irrigation agricultural enterprises, would destroy the key components of Dasanech livelihood. Most flood recession agriculture would be eliminated, along with ‘last resort’ livestock grazing lands, forest resources and fish reproductive habitats in the lowermost Omo and Lake Turkana northern shoreline. Even if the highly unlikely and in any case inadequate artificial flood program promised by the Ethiopian government were implemented, Dasanech survival systems would have already been decimated. The looming crisis of region-wide hunger and mortality is intensified by the Ethiopian government’s eviction and expropriation of thousands of Dasanech villagers for large-scale irrigated commercial agriculture. Political repression and a culture of fear prevail. As the crisis unfolds, Dasanech communities, faced with vanishing means of survival, would inevitably contribute to rapid escalation of cross-border, interethnic armed conflict.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 8. Nyangatom Livelihood and the Omo Riverine Forest

Abstract

Nyangatom agropastoralists settled along the Omo River to the north of the Dasanech rely primarily on flood recession agriculture on riverside flats, with subsidiary fishing and exploitation of forest resources. These Omo River dependent communities maintain complex social and material exchange with other Nyangatom settlements in both the Kibish River-Koras Mountain area at Ethiopia’s western border and in the Ilemi Triangle-South Sudan, where they share lands with the Toposa ethnic group. Nyangatom pastoralists and agropastoralists frequently clash with Dasanech and Turkana herders over grazing lands and water resources. The extensive Omo riverine forest—the last such pristine forest within semi-arid Sub-Saharan Africa—requires substantial soil moisture retention from the Omo River’s annual flood. Cessation of the flood would quickly promote the death of the forest and destruction of its abundant wildlife and resources essential to Nyangatom survival. Thousands of Nyangatom living along the river would suffer immediate disaster from the effects of Gibe dam closure and dam enabled irrigated agricultural enterprises. Like the Dasanech, the Nyangatom also are subjected to major expropriation and repression by the Ethiopian government, as well as major cutting of their forest by the Ethiopian government and its allied development interests.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 9. Turkana Survival Systems at Lake Turkana: Vulnerability to Collapse from Omo Basin Development

Abstract

The pastoral economy in transboundary Turkana lands has drastically declined in recent decades, largely due to the effects of colonial and post-colonial policies. Faced with radical herd losses, thousands of Turkana households have moved to Lake Turkana’s western shoreline for fishing and/or herding. This population—largely uncounted—is extremely vulnerable to loss of accessible Lake Turkana water, fisheries resources, and lakeside grazing. The Gibe III dam and irrigated agricultural plantations along the Omo would cause major shoreline retreat and eliminate the Omo River’s annual flood ‘pulse’ of fresh-water and nutrients into the lake. Major loss of fish reproductive habitat and fish stocks as well as potable water, along with desiccation of lakeside environments essential to livestock and people would result. As conditions worsen, a general movement of fishing and fishing/pastoral villages southward toward Ferguson’s Gulf—itself drying out—and around towns, in search of relief aid or survival opportunities, is likely. With no practical means of continued livelihood, hundreds of thousands of Turkana fishers and pastoralists would face region wide hunger and conditions for disease epidemics. Cross-border conflict between these Turkana and their northern neighbors would sharply escalate, especially in the face of regional arms trafficking. Northern and central Turkana protests and pleas for help have so far been ignored by the Kenyan government which continues to militarize the region.

Claudia J. Carr

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Chapter 10. Human Rights Violations and the Policy Crossroads

Abstract

The pursuit of Omo River basin development is leading to a major human rights crisis in the Ethiopia-Kenya-South Sudan transboundary region of eastern Africa. Among the principal human rights being violated are those recognized by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Treaty adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. Although the Ethiopian government is most immediately responsible for initiating human rights violations in the region, the Kenyan government and international development banks are variously complicit, collaborative and partnered in these transgressions. The World Bank, African Development Bank and major donor countries continue to support—even legitimate—the development despite predictable destruction of hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and major political rights violations, particularly within Ethiopia. Cumulative and synergistic effects of the Gibe III megadam and its linked irrigated plantations and energy export transmission system must be integrally considered for adequate social and environmental impact assessment, yet both governments and development banks have failed to act on this mandate. A crossroads in public policy has now emerged: either pursue the present pathway toward massive scale hunger, regional economic collapse and major new cross-border armed conflict or suspend the development underway in order to take genuine account of human rights and proceed in a direction that is accountable to citizens and provides for a sustainable future for the three nations involved.

Claudia J. Carr

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Backmatter

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Titel: River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads
verfasst von: Claudia J. Carr
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-50469-8
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50468-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50469-8