The construction of the Lambo Reservoir is one of the national strategy projects (PSN) which aims to provide raw water and irrigation needs in Nagekeo district. This development discourse has been present in Nagekeo since 1999. Where the development is still called the construction of the Mbai reservoir. However, the issue then disappeared because the community rejected the development.
At that time, the community's aspirations were conveyed directly by Jacob Nuwa Wea, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration to the mutual cooperation cabinet. However, after the expansion of Ngada district and the birth of Nagekeo district in 2008, the discourse on building the Lambo reservoir returned in 2015.
The community also rejected it again, especially rejecting the construction site in Lowo Se village. The Rendu indigenous community has carried out struggle after struggle, such as forming the Lambo Reservoir Rejection Forum (FPWL), which has written several times to the President, the People's Representative Council (DPR), the Governor, the National Land Agency (BPN), the NTT regional police (Polda), the regional government ( Local Government) Nagekeo, as well as Presidential staff. However, the results were nil.
The community even consolidated and coordinated to lead the mass action. The Rendu indigenous community once held a posse or roadblock against the Civil Service Police Unit (SatPol PP) near the zero point entrance. Physical clashes occurred. Satpol PP and the indigenous community carried out a push and shove which resulted in all the indigenous women taking part in the roadblock falling and two people fainting.
Not only that, the community's obstruction of police officers also resulted in indigenous women experiencing physical violence such as being strangled, handcuffed and arrested at the Nagekeo Police for no apparent reason. It doesn't stop there, the Rendu indigenous people also carry out traditional rituals by hanging a pig and a chicken as a symbol of cursing all those who take their customary land.
On April 4 2023, people again barricaded the entrance to the Roga-Roga. This obstruction also resulted in 24 Rendu indigenous people consisting of 1 woman and 23 men being arrested by the police and detained at the Nagekeo Police Chief for one day and one night. On the same day, heavy equipment in the form of excavators and workers began to enter the Lowo Se location. Construction of the Lambo reservoir continues to this day.
WOMEN AMAN believes that nature, which was once very beautiful, has now been completely eroded. Cultivated land, plant assets, pastures and ritual places have now been destroyed to make way for reservoir pads. The construction of this giant reservoir also submerged 30 houses, ancestral graves and plant assets in the yard which had been a source to meet the family's daily needs.
After the construction of the Lambo reservoir, the Rendu indigenous people also fought for the rights of the indigenous people which they have not received until now. This is related to the compensation promised by the government when planning the construction of the reservoir. Many times, indigenous peoples have to go down to the district BPN, which is around 33 km away, to confirm the data and monitor how far the compensation process has gone.
Moreover, in today's conditions, society must also be faced with other conflicts, namely land claims between individuals and between tribes. Now, the Rendu indigenous community has formed a relocation committee to organize, coordinate and carry out relocations to places that are not flooded by water. They do this because of the indigenous people's fear about the survival of future generations.
"We don't know where we are going and what our life will be like in the future, for now we are continuing to survive in this place until the water has to drive us away," said Mama Melda, a traditional Rendu woman.
