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A year after a severe flash flood exacted huge tolls
on human life and property in Dasenech Woreda, in
South Omo Zone of the Southern Nations Nationalities
and Peoples' Regional State (SNNPRS), victims feel
neglected by authorities.
Lotokore Yarekal, who has 12 children from his six
spouses, is a highly regarded elder in Dasenech.
The man, around 60 years old, believes Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi has failed to live up to his
promises.
"The government has done nothing for us," Lotokore
lamented.
When the Prime Minister first visited the flood
affected Toltale Island on the Kenyan Border two
weeks after the trauma in July 2006, he was not
welcomed with a standing ovation. He rather faced a
series of complaints from the pastoralists who felt
abandoned, though they claimed to have voted for his
party, the EPRDF. There was not the usual excitement
when his helicopter touched down.
But the Prime Minister managed to calm down their
criticism with a promise that, they thought, would
change their lives.
"We will not forget you," Meles had told a crowd of
120 that were left overwhelmed with the pledge.
However, promises have been unfulfilled 16 months
after the disaster, many residents recently told
Fortune.
The government had vowed to resettle residents of
Lotokore's village in Salegne to no avail. He also
criticises the government's reluctance to train a
militia for keeping the border area free from
conflicts over cattle, which often claim many lives.
Ironically, they claimed to have suffered through
another harsh rainy season (kremt) that brought more
floods. Though it was not as dire as that of the
previous year's, which caused 364 deaths in Dasenech
Woreda and displaced about 6,000, the three-month
rainy season has inflicted a hefty damage on the
residents.
Thousands are displaced due to the flood and are
currently living in camps. According to a figure
available at a local non-governmental organisation
(NGO), the Ethiopian Pastoralist Research and
Development Association (EPRDA), 4,106 households
are displaced from Dasenech, Hamer and Nyangatom
woredas in the South Omo due to the flood.
"The place where Meles had landed his helicopter is
now totally covered with water," Lotokore said,
explaining the severity of this year's flood. "We
abandoned everything and moved to Seis."
His friends consider him an iron man for his
tremendous fighting skills in tribal conflicts. Even
his foes cannot help but appreciate his capability.
"His name is more popular in the Kenyan Turkanas
tribe than in neighbouring Ethiopian tribes," says
one pastoralist from the Lotokore's Dasenech tribe.
"He is a brave warrior."
Lokotore's warfare skills could not save his
tribesmen from fleeing to Seis, a remote area,
located just a few kilometres away from the Ethio-Kenyan
border, when the flood hit theirs' and other
villages along the edge of the Omo River.
That is why Lotokore and his fellow natives are
still urging the government to bring sustainable
change that will protect against the recurring
floods. Immediate aid, though, is helping the
current situation. More than 4,000 displaced people
are receiving monthly stipends from the government.
Eriama Loyitegres, 42, is among the 3,270 displaced
households from Loyire in Dasenech Woreda. For
Eriama, leaving his home and cattle behind is not a
new thing, though this year's burden pales in
comparison from last year's tragedy.
"I lost two children and three grandchildren," he
said. "My 20 cattle were also swept away with the
flood."
Helicopters brought some refugees to Omorate town,
capital of Dasenech Woreda, 987Km South of Addis
Abeba. Omorate was one of the five selected areas -
along with Toltale, Koronguat, Salegne and
Dalegnemore - to relocate people. Staying for months
in Omorate, Eriama returned to his birthplace.
He, like Lotokore, has grievances with what he
considers negligence from the government.
"The government gave us insufficient food after the
flood," Eriama said. "We were not sustained from
reserves, as our grain stock was washed away. We had
to rely on gathering fruit."
Eriama and Lotokore believe that the government has
broken its promises and failed to bring a lasting
solution to the problem.
Indeed, one only needs to observe their living
conditions to sympathise with their sorrow.
Eriama is living with his two wives and three
granddaughters in a temporary small arched
traditional shelter made of wood. Three animal skins
serve as mattresses on the dusty ground. In one
corner ashes and clay bricks signify the food
preparation space. Pots and kalabash,
traditional cups, are hanging on one part of the
transparent wall.
"These are the only properties I have," Eriama told
Fortune with a wry smile.
The smoke from cooking inside has caused severe
coughs in his two granddaughters. Eriama suspected
minor colds but nurses working in Dalegnemore
informed him respiratory disease was the cause.
Lotokore claimed the Prime Minister had pledged to
compensate villagers for the cattle they may lose in
flooding. He still wonders where this money is.
"Where did that money go?" Lotokore questioned. "I
would ask Meles this if I met him."
He did have an opportunity to confront Shiferaw
Shigute, president of the Regional State, in a
meeting held in a neighbouring Dasenech Woreda.
Though the agenda of the meeting was how to resolve
the rampant conflict with various pastoralist
tribes, Lotokore and others raised a number of
questions about infrastructural problems, only to be
unsatisfied with the response. Some of them have
gone as far as asking their translators to stop his
speech.
"They were very angry with his speech," one
translator told Fortune. "They wanted him to
cease talking of what has been done and address the
problems."
Shiferaw recalled his visit to the area with the
Prime Minister last year and told them what his
government has done so far; 700 houses have already
been constructed for them in Dasenech and Ngangatom,
the most affected woredas of last year's flood.
Nonetheless, the pastoralists starkly disagree with
his arguments. Lotokore said that he did not see
such houses in the areas.
Girma Gnaweria, chief administrator of the Dasenech
Woreda, tried to clear the confusion. He told
Fortune that the government is providing
corrugated iron sheet to the victims to build their
own houses.
"The victims have made 684 traditional houses in
Aguleches and Awega localities only," he asserted.
However, such responses did not satisfy the
residents.
"That is not the type of house we want to build,"
Lotokore said. "We need a proper house that will
host Prime Minister Meles when he comes back
again."
Their concern is not only housing. Flood plains
still impede movement in the area.
Motorboats are necessary to pass the fields of
Toltale that once could be traversed by foot.
"These days, only the shepherds are bold enough to
cross the wetlands of Toltale on foot," Lotokore
said.
After struggling to reach to the middle of the
island, the shepherds stay there, where the only
primary school in the area is located. The shepherds
graze their cattle by day and go to school at night.
Lotokore told Fortune milk is used to subsist
in this area.
Despite such hardship in that remote part of the
country, this year's flood did not get media
coverage either because the hype for the millennium
celebrations buried the issue or because there were
no casualties, according to aid workers in the
Woreda.
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