Construction workers chew khat—a natural drug with euphoric effects—at the end of a working day, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

Indigenous Karo children play in the sand on the banks of the Omo River in Ethiopia. The Karo people are entirely dependent on the river for food: both for fish and crops grown in fertile flood soil. The forest seen in the background was cleared to make way for commercial cotton plantations.

A Dassenach home in Omorate, the last village in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, before the Kenyan border.

A man with a woman, said to be a sex worker, in a bar in the growing town of Hana Mursi, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Alcoholism and prostitution are on the rise with the influx of soldiers and construction workers to the area.

A child plays in the sand near a government storage depot, in Omorate, Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

The Gibe III Dam, Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

A Borana woman stands inside a well, getting water for her cattle, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

A Chinese man buys cattle at a Bodi market, for use in the canteen serving workers building a new sugar mill, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The Bodi people, who traditionally raised livestock for their own needs, are now also supplying foreigners.

A man from the Mursi ethnic group prepares for a traditional stick-fighting contest against a neighboring village, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. For the past two decades the Mursi have been singled out for visits by tour companies. The Mursi surround tourist vehicles, are photographed, and ask for money.

The construction crew is dwarfed by one of the twin pumping tunnels for the Gibe III Dam, Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

Members of the Hamar people drink in an informal bar in Turmi, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Turmi is a hub for tourists visiting the area, and is reportedly seeing a rise in the numbers of bars, where people from local ethnic groups spend currency earned from construction workers and tourists.

A Dassanech man drinks from the Omo River, Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

A man, who has just sold a cow to foreign construction workers, counts his money at a local market. Until a few years ago, bartering was the predominant form of commerce at the market, or goods were sold for just a few Bir, but the influx of foreigners has led to an increase in the use of currency.

A member of the Konso ethnic group smokes beside the road to Arba Minch, the chief transit city for tourists visiting the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The development of the area and of Arba Minch has not yet brought substantial benefit to the local population.

Pipes suck water from the Omo River to irrigate cotton plantations. Exposed tree roots indicate the extent of the drop in water levels.

Hamar women with malaria lie in a clinic in the town of Turmi, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government claimed that the Gibe III Dam, built on the Omo River, would help reduce incidence of malaria by regulating water flow, but local data do not back this up.

Hamar men drive their cattle to pasture near the town of Turmi, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Some Hamar boundaries have been redrawn and their land cleared for sugar cane.

Dassanech children look on as a road passing just a few hundred meters from their village is asphalted, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The road network in the Omo Valley was largely financed by Chinese investment, as was the Gibe III Dam.

New pylons from the Gibe III Dam hydroelectric complex cross over old electricity wires, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Only part of the power generated at Gibe III will be used locally, the rest is for export. Many local villages still lack electricity.

A Dassanech woman carries her child home after visiting the village of Omorare, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Diminishing land for grazing in the Omo Valley creates difficulties for the pastoral Dassanech.

Preparations are made to construct a water pump, at a bend in the Omo River, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Until two years ago the adjoining lands were covered in fluvial forest, but have now been cleared for cultivation that will require a high degree of irrigation.

A man draws water from a well in a dried river bed, near Kalokol, Kenya, downstream of the Gibe III Dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia.

A fisherman carries the day’s catch in the Ferguson Gulf area of Lake Turkana, Kenya—a critical fish-breeding area and key fishing ground of the Turkana people. Research based on satellite imagery, conducted by Human Rights Watch, indicates the shoreline in the area to have receded by as much as 1.7 kilometers since the start of operations of the Gibe III Dam, upstream in Ethiopia.

Bales of dried fish in a market in Kalokol, on the shores of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Market owners complain of a 30 percent fall in business in recent years as a result of shrinkage of the lake.

A husband and wife prepare freshly caught fish before drying it, beside Lake Turkana, Kenya.

A solar-powered lamp illuminates streets in Kalokol, Kenya. Despite the village’s proximity to the Gibe III hydroelectric plant, it has no electricity connection.

The Omo River Delta, where the river feeds into Lake Turkana in Kenya.

Mursi women, wearing bras given them by tourists, return to their village after fetching well water, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

Pastoral Dassanech people drive a herd across the main road to the Kenyan border, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. A report released by The Oakland Institute in California points to the devastating effect of the Gibe III Dam on pastoral communities whose lands are dependent on the nutrients brought by seasonal flooding.

Nyangatom men bathe in the Omo River, Ethiopia, near a bridge that will link their territory to that of the Karo.

General News,3rd prize

Lives In Limbo