The great land rush

‘Investors are betting billions on an asset that is both more abundant and more fiercely contested than any other’

– Financial Times 2016

In my last post I talked about foreign direct investments in Ethiopian land and the related water use.

Today I want to feature an article by the Financial Times which investigates the ‘land rush’ in the Gambella region (Ethiopian lowlands) and the billions of dollars that are involved in it. 

The Ethiopian government has leased about 2.5 million hectares of land to foreign investors in recent years, one of the main projects being ‘Saudi Star Agriculture Development Plc’, a large-scale industrial rice plantation owned by the Saudi tycoon Mohammed al-Amoudi. This project aims to grow 140.000 tonnes of rice per year on an area that is as big as 20.000 soccer fields (FT 2016).

This large-scale agricultural project will require a mega irrigation scheme consuming enormous amounts of water. The Saudi Star farm is located next to the Alwero River and will divert water from this freshwater resource, on which the Anuak and other rural communities rely.

By 2018, Saudi Star plans to complete 21km of irrigation canals, transporting water form the Alwero River to the fields (Grain 2012). In addition to that, Saudi Star also plans to build a dam, to make more water available for irrigation. No impact assessments have been carried out in order to know how these massive water abstractions might impact million downstream users as well as local communities (Oakland Institute).

What about the Anuak who rely on these waters?

Some of the Anuak people are pastoralists, but most oft them are substistence farmers who move to drier areas in the rainy season before returning to the river banks of the Alwero river (Grain 2012). Fishing and farming (e.g. maize) on these river banks have been central to the livelihoods of these indigenous people for centuries. They heavily depend on the Alwero river for water access, and the Saudi Star project will undermine their access in the future.

An additional major issue related to this agricultural intensification project are relocations of the local people, whereby indigenous villagers are being forcibly resettled.  These relocations have happened under the governments’ ‘villagization program’, a project to gather several communities in one settlement to make it easier to provide basic services. The official claim is that these relocations happen voluntary, because the government promises villagers housing, social services and support infrastructure in their new settlement. However, reality has turned out to be very different.

Human rights advocates (such as Human Rights Watch, Oakland Institute) have conducted interviews with the relocated people and found out that these new settlements did not provide the promised services: lacking health facilities, schools, water wells, agricultural assistance and many instances of abuse and violence have been reported (Corpwatch 2014). In the end, these small subsistence farmers have lost their self-sufficient livelihoods on lands that their ancestors had owned for centuries, to find themselves in a state of government dependency in which they feel like ‘refugees in their own land’.

A long history of disputes over land leases and their impacts on locals has led to several violent conflicts between indigenous people and the military. On April 27, 2012, several Anuak people attacked a ‘Saudi Star’ compound, shooting five farm workers. The regional military reacted with capturing villagers, beating men and raping women (Financial Times 2016).  Just a week before the Anuak attack, news about Saudi Star’s plans to irrigate their rice fields with water from the Alwero Rive had been released.

Resources: 

Corpwatch, (2014). Saudi Star To Restart Rice Project on Disputed Anuak Lands in Ethiopia. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=16006

Financial Times, (2016). The great land rush. Financial Times. https://ig.ft.com/sites/land-rush-investment/ethiopia/

Grain. Squeezing Africa Dry: Behind every land grab is a water grab. Grain; 2012. https://www.grain.org/article/entries/4516-squeezing-africa-dry-behind-every-land-grab-is-a-water-grab

Oakland Institute, (2011). Saudi Star in Ethiopia. Land Deal Brief. Oakland Institute.

https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-deal-brief-saudi-star-ethiopia