The future of these tribes, however, is in jeopardy. Gibe III, a huge hydroelectric dam on the Omo River, is currently being built to power vast commercial crops, displacing tribal peoples. This will have disastrous effects on the fragile ecological as well as the tribes’ livelihoods, which are inextricably linked to the river and its annual flood. Both the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank indicated in 2010 that they were no longer considering funding Gibe III after conducting early appraisal studies. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China’s largest bank, has agreed to fund a portion of the dam’s construction, while the World Bank is funding the dam’s electrical transmission lines. The life-giving fluids are delivered to the plants via hundreds of kilometers of irrigation systems. Large expanses of fertile land in the Lower Omo region were leased to Malaysian, Italian, Indian, and Korean corporations in 2011 for the growth of biofuels and cash crops such as oil palm, jatropha, cotton, and maize. It has begun evicting Bodi, Kwegu, and Mursi residents from their homes and relocating them to resettlement zones in order to make way for the vast state-run Kuraz Sugar Project, which currently spans 150,000 hectares but might grow to 245,000 hectares in the future. Suris who live west of the Omo are also being pressured to leave to make space for enormous commercial plantations.
