The Future of Omo River in Ethiopia

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Water is one of the resources whose usage is considered strategic for the future geo-political assets. Dams have always been one of the symbols of human endeavours enabling one to produce low-cost energy and to control floods for agriculture. However, the so-called ‘large dams’, massive artificial bodies, have been built more and more, requiring complex arrangements from a technical point of view. If they have been seen as a feasible solution for different problems by governments, they can heavily damage local human conditions. This is what is happening in the Omo River in Ethiopia. The government wants to frog-leap towards ‘modernity’ bypassing the rights and the uses of local populations through the construction of the 4th largest dam of the world, Gibe III. Two hundred thousand people are under threat for the on-going environmental consequences, facing as well the effects of climate change. Therefore, the work wants to shed further light on the developmental issues of Ethiopia, trying to depict a broad frame of analysis through a social-ecological perspective on the current drama of Omo River.