"Dam uproots farmers amid worsening drought in Indonesia’s Flores Island", 27 November 2024

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The Lambo Dam was designated a national priority infrastructure project and will stand at 48 meters (157 feet) high, creating a reservoir holding 51.73 million cubic meters (13.67 billion gallons) of water across 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of land. Construction by an Indonesian state-owned firm began in 2021. ...

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... an increasing number of remote communities and Indigenous peoples are enduring displacement to make way for infrastructure, like Flores Island’s Lambo Dam.

“This land is vital for us Indigenous people, but the government is carrying out the development on grounds of national interests,” Mateus said. “What about our lives?”

Years of delays have hampered construction of the Lambo Dam here in Nagekeo district, in part because of resistance from Indigenous people like Kristina Ito and Maria Magdalena Ngole.

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Andy Yentriyani, chair of Komnas Perempuan and a veteran women’s rights activist in Indonesia, said the impetus to increase water capacity in the region was clear, but that compensation arrangements were far from fair for the community.

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