Brazil tribes occupy hydroelectric dam project - YouTube: ""
'via Blog this'
Mega Damming of the Life giving waters of Ethiopia. This process is menacing the existence of the inhabitants of the region by drying the sources and lakes. The main reason advertised for damming is for production of Electricity and exporting energy. This could be done by small human level dams.The underlying reason is to the irrigation for the great land grabbing for cash crop exportation for financial speculators. Moreover, such mega projects leads to undue water crisis.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Norway pledges $141m for clean energy in Ethiopia, Kenya and Liberia | Omoh Gabriel's Business Blog
Norway is to provide 850 million Norwegian crowns to fund clean energy projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Liberia, finance that could unlock private sector investment in new types of carbon markets, the country’s government said on Monday. The African countries will get the cash as part of the Norway-led Energy+ Partnership, which aims to give the world’s poorest countries access to energy and encourage a new market-based system to limit emissions from global energy generation. Efforts to promote new means of financing cleaner energy in developing countries come at a time when investment in current U.N. mechanisms is shrinking fast.“Part of the motivation for this funding is to develop pilot projects that could be eligible for future new market mechanisms and attract sufficient investment from the carbon market by 2015,” said Hans Olav Ibrekk, a policy director with Norway’s foreign ministry. Through the terms of the deal, which was signed last week at the Rio+20 climate talks, Ethiopia will get NOK 500 million to invest in low carbon energy, forests and agriculture.
Kenya has been pledged NOK 250 million to cut emissions from paraffin-based lamps and cookstoves, while Liberia could receive NOK 100 million to fund a 64-MW hydropower project to supply its capital Monrovia with low-carbon electricity. The Norwegian government said the finance to the three countries would only be made available as results are achieved, and is part of a wider NOK 1.8-billion a year contribution. The sectors targeted by the Norwegian investment could in theory be eligible to earn carbon credits through financing mechanisms that have yet to be elaborated or agreed at U.N. climate talks.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Millennium Dam: Necessary for Integrating Interests of Nile Basin StatesSudan Vision Daily - Details
Sudanese Engineering Association in Khartoum held last week a symposium titled: Ethiopian Millennium Dam and Future of Development in Sudan, attended by many experts, consultants in the field of Nile waters and irrigation, namely the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources and Sadiq Al-Mahdi.
The symposium dealt with analysis and debating the Millennium Dam, being constructed 12klm away east of Sudanese borders with Ethiopia, benefits and economic and environmental effects of the Dam on the states of Nile Basin.
Sudan is aware of the benefits and effects of the Dam
Professor Saifuddine Hamad Abdallah, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, said his ministry conducted various studies in all fields and the Nile Basin states for 25 years to come and that it has a complete vision for what is going on now in respect of the Millennium Dam and strategy for dealing with the new situation and proposed dams in these countries. The Minister said Sudan would make maximum use of this dam, which would reduce clay, whose removal costs millions of dollars, adding that the dam will provide waters at fixed levels that will help in irrigated agriculture, especially in the wake of shortages of rain across the regions of the country.
The minister said that shortage of electricity power will be compensated from new proposed dams or purchase from Ethiopia which sells power for 50 US cents per kilowatt, which far less than production cost for a kilowatt in Sudan. He stated that the dam will have many benefits for Egypt for it will reduce amount of alluvium in the basin of the High Dam and evaporation, adding that the Ethiopians side always welcomes proposals by Sudan and Egypt in the interest of all parties.
Necessity for Nile Basin States to participate in constructing the Dam
Professor Mohamed Akod Osman, the Dean of Faculty of Engineering, University of Khartoum, stated that the Millennium Dam would have positive impact on Sudan if agreement on how to operate it was reached to achieve development and self-sufficiency because it would supply water at stable rate throughout the year. In his paper, the Professor said the dam would reduce alluvium for Sudan by 100 million meter cubic. He underscored the importance of taking into account international legal legislations to tap on the Nile Basin waters, adding that the Millennium Dam will change the level of Nile waters for the Basin States.
Akod demanded Sudan and Egypt contribute to the cost of construction estimated at $50billion in US dollars to ensure common interests, adding that the Dam will provide huge amount of electricity that can be utilized in development for the Nile Basin states.
Dr. Osman Al-Tom Hamad, advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources, explained that the construction of the Millennium Dam was especially aimed at power generation not agricultural production due to the nature of Ethiopian mountainous lands. He added that the Dam is located 12kllm from Sudan and would be finalized in 2017 and that construction has now reached 10 per cent. He said the Dam would affect electricity production in Sudan during summer, but would improve during winter because waters would be available during this period. However, Ethiopia offered to Sudan purchasing power at 50 cent per a kilowatt, far cheaper than that produced in Sudan. He said that some sandy island would disappear and annual accumulation of alluvium would reduce, which would increase cost of electricity production due to scarcity of this alluvium. He called for the necessity for Sudan to make use of the available waters in agricultural and working for agricultural integration in the Nile Basin States.
The Nile will suffice all Nile Basin States
Dr. Ahmed Adam Osman, advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources, affirmed that the Nile Basin states can benefit from waters if agreement satisfactory to all parties is reached, adding that Ethiopia has the feeling that it is not benefiting from these waters, adding that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are suffering poverty, climate change and accumulating alluvium along the Nile stream, and that this Dam will block waters above and therefore will reduce alluvium and help in precipitation, which in turn will reduce amount of evaporation. He called for joint work so that Ethiopia may not control the Nile Waters.
Environmental effect
Dr. Merghani Taj Assied added that any heedlessness in political relations will affect the flow of Nile waters in the member states in the coming period and that the constructing of the Dam would affect food security in Egypt and Sudan, fish resources and the Nile level will go below average levels, which require longer pipes and additional cost for farming along the Nile for farmers. However, said the construction of the Dam will reduce soil erosion on the banks.
Integration of Nile Basin states
Sadiq Al-Mahdi said that lack of agreement among the Nile Basin member states will lead to grave political crisis, adding that holding out by any party would encourage others to take more fundamental positions and create cold war among them. he called for the necessity to review the agreement on the Nile waters in such a way to make other members states feel fair distribution of cottas, adding that any military solution is useless in this issues, but the solutions rests with the recognition of the need of the Basin state and accepting their opinions on the agreement signed during the colonization and taking into account the desire of the Basin states for benefiting from the Nile waters. Al-Mahdi called for a collective conference for all Sudanese so that they have their say and determines their fate regarding the Nile waters; in addition to integrating the interests of the Nile Basin member States because Sudan is blessed with arable lands while Ethiopia has potentials for electricity production and Egypt manufacturing expertise.
The symposium dealt with analysis and debating the Millennium Dam, being constructed 12klm away east of Sudanese borders with Ethiopia, benefits and economic and environmental effects of the Dam on the states of Nile Basin.
Sudan is aware of the benefits and effects of the Dam
Professor Saifuddine Hamad Abdallah, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, said his ministry conducted various studies in all fields and the Nile Basin states for 25 years to come and that it has a complete vision for what is going on now in respect of the Millennium Dam and strategy for dealing with the new situation and proposed dams in these countries. The Minister said Sudan would make maximum use of this dam, which would reduce clay, whose removal costs millions of dollars, adding that the dam will provide waters at fixed levels that will help in irrigated agriculture, especially in the wake of shortages of rain across the regions of the country.
The minister said that shortage of electricity power will be compensated from new proposed dams or purchase from Ethiopia which sells power for 50 US cents per kilowatt, which far less than production cost for a kilowatt in Sudan. He stated that the dam will have many benefits for Egypt for it will reduce amount of alluvium in the basin of the High Dam and evaporation, adding that the Ethiopians side always welcomes proposals by Sudan and Egypt in the interest of all parties.
Necessity for Nile Basin States to participate in constructing the Dam
Professor Mohamed Akod Osman, the Dean of Faculty of Engineering, University of Khartoum, stated that the Millennium Dam would have positive impact on Sudan if agreement on how to operate it was reached to achieve development and self-sufficiency because it would supply water at stable rate throughout the year. In his paper, the Professor said the dam would reduce alluvium for Sudan by 100 million meter cubic. He underscored the importance of taking into account international legal legislations to tap on the Nile Basin waters, adding that the Millennium Dam will change the level of Nile waters for the Basin States.
Akod demanded Sudan and Egypt contribute to the cost of construction estimated at $50billion in US dollars to ensure common interests, adding that the Dam will provide huge amount of electricity that can be utilized in development for the Nile Basin states.
Dr. Osman Al-Tom Hamad, advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources, explained that the construction of the Millennium Dam was especially aimed at power generation not agricultural production due to the nature of Ethiopian mountainous lands. He added that the Dam is located 12kllm from Sudan and would be finalized in 2017 and that construction has now reached 10 per cent. He said the Dam would affect electricity production in Sudan during summer, but would improve during winter because waters would be available during this period. However, Ethiopia offered to Sudan purchasing power at 50 cent per a kilowatt, far cheaper than that produced in Sudan. He said that some sandy island would disappear and annual accumulation of alluvium would reduce, which would increase cost of electricity production due to scarcity of this alluvium. He called for the necessity for Sudan to make use of the available waters in agricultural and working for agricultural integration in the Nile Basin States.
The Nile will suffice all Nile Basin States
Dr. Ahmed Adam Osman, advisor to the Ministry of Water Resources, affirmed that the Nile Basin states can benefit from waters if agreement satisfactory to all parties is reached, adding that Ethiopia has the feeling that it is not benefiting from these waters, adding that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are suffering poverty, climate change and accumulating alluvium along the Nile stream, and that this Dam will block waters above and therefore will reduce alluvium and help in precipitation, which in turn will reduce amount of evaporation. He called for joint work so that Ethiopia may not control the Nile Waters.
Environmental effect
Dr. Merghani Taj Assied added that any heedlessness in political relations will affect the flow of Nile waters in the member states in the coming period and that the constructing of the Dam would affect food security in Egypt and Sudan, fish resources and the Nile level will go below average levels, which require longer pipes and additional cost for farming along the Nile for farmers. However, said the construction of the Dam will reduce soil erosion on the banks.
Integration of Nile Basin states
Sadiq Al-Mahdi said that lack of agreement among the Nile Basin member states will lead to grave political crisis, adding that holding out by any party would encourage others to take more fundamental positions and create cold war among them. he called for the necessity to review the agreement on the Nile waters in such a way to make other members states feel fair distribution of cottas, adding that any military solution is useless in this issues, but the solutions rests with the recognition of the need of the Basin state and accepting their opinions on the agreement signed during the colonization and taking into account the desire of the Basin states for benefiting from the Nile waters. Al-Mahdi called for a collective conference for all Sudanese so that they have their say and determines their fate regarding the Nile waters; in addition to integrating the interests of the Nile Basin member States because Sudan is blessed with arable lands while Ethiopia has potentials for electricity production and Egypt manufacturing expertise.
By Ibrahim Al-Jack, 20 hours 4 minutes ago
Dams & State Sugar Project Harming Ethiopian Tribes, Rights Group Says - Businessweek
Human Rights Watch said tens of thousands of semi-nomadic people in southern Ethiopia may be forced off their land to make way for state-owned sugar cane plantations. The government denied any displacement would occur.
Last year, Ethiopia’s state-run Sugar Corp. began building six processing factories and clearing as much as 175,000 hectares (432,000 acres) in the Lower Omo Valley area to produce the sweetener. The government denied the Kuraz Sugar Development Project would displace anyone and instead will bring infrastructure, services and jobs.
“There is a real risk that the livelihoods of 500,000 people may be endangered, tens of thousands will be forcibly displaced, and that the region will witness increased inter- ethnic conflict as communities compete for scarce resources,” the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
Ethiopia, sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous nation, is in the middle of a five-year plan to boost agriculture and industry and create sustainable growth. The Horn of Africa nation’s economy grew 7.5 percent last year and expansion averaged 10.5 percent annually in the five years to July 2010, the International Monetary Fund said.
Plantations covering 245,000 hectares will deprive the eight ethnic groups access to the Omo river, HRW said, citing a 2010 study by European Investment Bank consultants. Large-scale irrigation in the valley is possible because the Omo River’s volume can be managed by controlling the flow from the Gibe III hydropower dam that is being built.
No Relocations
“There is no one to be relocated at all, let alone forced relocation, due to the sugar development project,” Sugar Corp. spokesman Yilma Tibebu said on June 15 in an e-mailed response to questions.
The state is spending 23.8 million birr ($1.3 million) “to make the people benefit from a settled way of life” alongside the sugar farms, he said. Around 2,250 resettled households will be given 1,700 hectares of irrigable land, public services and a grain mill, Yilma said.
The government estimates the Kuraz project will create as many as 118,000 jobs for locals he said.
“With no education and no contact, they lived being victims of natural disasters and harmful cultural practices which gives them nothing except remaining to be an amusement for foreign tourists,” Yilma said of the valley’s inhabitants.
Ethiopia is breaking its international and domestic human rights obligations by starting the project without adequate consultation or impact assessments, according to the report.
Consent from “tribal chiefs and the people” was obtained beforehand and the state-owned Water Works Design & Supervision Enterprise conducted a study on the orject’s effect that will be made public, Yilma said.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa at wdavison3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bryson Hull at bhull5@bloomberg.net
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Africa's highest dam opens flood of debate | My Sinchew
by Jenny Vaughan
GIBE III, Ethiopia, June 8, 2012 (AFP) - The mud-coloured Omo River which snakes through green gorges, feeding lush vegetation and providing vital water to one of Ethiopia's most remote regions, will also power a contentious dam project.
The government says the Gibe III dam will boost development, give access to power for many Ethiopians -- about half of the population -- currently living without it, and generate revenue from the export of electricity to the region.
But with construction under way for Africa's highest dam at 243 metres (nearly 800 feet), critics say Ethiopia must also consider the environmental and social impact it will have on some 500,000 people living downstream and at Lake Turkana in neighbouring Kenya. Their livelihoods rely on the river.
"If they're going to build this huge hydro-power dam than it should be done in a way that benefits the people who are most affected," said David Turton, a senior research fellow at Oxford University's African Studies Centre.
The Omo River is over 700 kilometers (430 miles) long and supplies Lake Turkana with 80 percent of its water. It is a source of annual flooding for the agro-pastoralists living in the South Omo valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The completion of the dam in 2014, which will have a capacity of 1,870 megawatts, will regulate the river's flow and, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), offer a predictable water source for communities living along the river south of the dam.
Agro-pastoralists in Omo's valley have traditionally relied on flood-retreat agriculture for cultivation and animal grazing.
"Before, the wet season was two months, or maximum three months, then there was nine months of drought, now for 12 months there will be a regulated flow for all the downstream users," said EEPCo chief executive Mirhet Debebe.
'What happens to the people?'
The centuries-old flood-retreat agriculture practised by the downstream tribes is a cultural mainstay of the Bodi, Mursi and Nyangatom tribes, famed for their lip-plate and body painting customs.
But Azeb Aznake, Gibe III project manager at EEPCo, has said artificial flooding would be created annually "so that their practice is not interrupted."
She said the regular river flow would provide irrigation for small-scale cultivators downstream, and denied that the Gibe III dam would feed irrigation channels to nearby foreign-owned plantations, as some groups have charged.
"The purpose of the dam is for hydroelectric power, and nothing more," the power company executive said.
Most of the $1.8 billion (1.5 billion euro) cost of the project -- the third in a series of five dams planned along the Omo River -- will be covered by EEPCo, with a Chinese firm bankrolling the $400 million electromechanical costs.
The dam has been mired in controversy from the project's inception and the "Stop Gibe 3" online petition has collected over 18,000 signatures.
EEPCo's Azeb admitted that any project of this magnitude is bound to have an impact on local communities and ecosystems, but said the overall benefits were too great to ignore.
"Water is our major resource.... We have to make use of it and develop, we have to eat three times a day like any human being, so there has to be compromise," she said.
Power generated by the dam will be sold to neighbouring Djibouti -- which is already receiving Ethiopian power -- as well as Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland, providing a major source of income, CEO Mihret said.
For Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the US-based think tank Oakland Institute, which is opposed to the dam's construction, the benefits are not widespread enough.
'There must be concern for social justice'
"It's really about who benefits and what benefits.... At the macro level you might have increased exports, economic growth, but what about human development, what happens to the people?" he said in a phone interview from California.
He urged the Ethiopian government to halt the dam's construction "so investment could go towards infrastructure that could really benefit the people."
Some nearby residents welcome the job opportunities that have accompanied the dam's constructions. Over 4,000 Ethiopians have been hired to help build Gibe III, which was started in 2006 and is over 50 percent complete.
"It is good for our development and the area's development (because) we get more employment," said Mengistu Mara, 26, a student in Lala town about 30 kilometres away from Gibe III.
His brother who works as a crane operator at the dam pays Mengistu's school fees at the local high school, built in 2009 by the dam's contractors.
"I'm learning now because my brother is bringing me money," he said, standing in front of the school built near the village's newly paved road.
Lala resident Desalegn Barata, 41, also welcomed the job creation, but said that even with the construction site next door his community still has no clinic.
"There is no clinic or hospital and there are many diseases here," he said, swatting at the flies swarming around him in the midday heat.
For analyst Turton, the government should prioritise social justice as the project moves ahead, saying it is possible to balance the benefits with the potential impact.
"This is often presented as a choice between development and what we sometimes call cultural preservation, it's presented as sometimes you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs," he said, adding that he is not opposed to the construction of Gibe III.
"But it should be done in a way that shows a concern for social justice."
Friday, June 8, 2012
Ethiopian dam threatens Lake Turkana - Times LIVE
Turkana men sail their fishing boats near the shores of Lake Turkana, northeast of Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Image by: STR / REUTERS
Image by: STR / REUTERS
The fishermen and herders eking out an existence on the shores of the majestic Lake Turkana risk having their way of life destroyed by a giant dam under construction in Ethiopia.
SAVE & SHARE
Glittering jade under the scorching sun, Lake Turkana is a fragile jewel in an arid environment already hit by global warming. At 250 kilometres (150 miles) long by 60 kilometres wide at its largest point, it is the world's biggest desert lake.
"This is a precious lake, an amazingly beautiful one and maybe in 60 years from now you will not see the people here, nor the fish. and you will have a dead lake," Joseph Lekuton, a local legislator, warns.
Flowing down from the north, the river Omo supplies Lake Turkana with 80 percent of its water. Since 2006, Ethiopia has been building a dam several hundreds of kilometres upstream that will on completion be Africa's highest.
The 243-metre-high Gibe III dam will create a reservoir covering 210 square kilometres (80 square miles).
In 2006 Kenya, which struggles to cover its energy needs, signed an agreement with Ethiopia to import up to 500 MW produced by the dam.
For the people living around Lake Turkana that was seen as an act of betrayal.
UNESCO -- which classes part of the lake as a World Heritage site --condemned the Ethiopian dam project.
China stepped in to finance the project and around 50 percent of the dam has already been built.
Crusading environmentalist Ikal Angelei, who founded the Friends of Lake Turkana pressure group in 2008, estimates that water levels in the lake will go down by two to five metres as the dam's reservoir fills up and will never return to normal.
"We are really definitely duplicating the Aral sea (devastated since the 1960s when water was pumped out to grow cotton) -- building a dam and now putting sugarcane and cotton plantations downstream in the Omo basin, all things that will reduce the amount of water flowing into the lake," Angelei said.
The surface area of the lake has already shrunk by dozens of metres over the past few years as rising temperatures have led to increased evaporation. That is in a region where temperatures already climb to over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for most of the year.
'Really scary to think what could happen'
Fighting between communities for control of watering holes for livestock and grazing land has become more common as water has become scarcer and a year ago Turkana was the area of Kenya hit hardest by the drought and famine that struck East Africa.
"We have adapted to the changes over the years and we have built a sense of resilience but now we have reached a tipping point," said Angelei, who earlier this year won the prestigious Goldman prize -- considered a sort of Nobel prize for environmentalists.
"Should we have an abrupt change, it is really scary to think what could happen," she went on, raising the spectre of local people becoming dependent on food aid or being herded into displaced camps.
Lake Turkana is "a very fragile ecosystem", and data on the dam's potential impact has been limited, according to Achim Steiner, executive director for the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme.
"There is a reason to be concerned [because] the environmental assessment, the hydrological data, the models have not been as public as perhaps some would have wished them to be," Steiner said.
"If at the end the result of the dam being constructed and operated is that the ecosystem can no longer function the way it had over hundreds or thousands of years, then clearly you have a major disruption, and neither the Kenyan nor the Ethiopian authorities would like it to happen," Steiner said.
"But these things need to be studied, discussed and assessed in advance, not after the fact."
Meanwhile, some activists are already resigned to the fact that the dam will be finished and are already looking ahead to what can be done next.
"To be very honest it is only a matter of time before the Chinese release the money to complete the dam... so our next plan of action is to develop something akin to the Nile water basin whereby we would have a stake in what happens upstream," said Gideon Lepalo, director of the Save Lake Turkana Campaign project.
"I have very good memories of the lake as a child," he said, adding that it pained him that his children would not have similar memories to hold on to.
Ethiopian dam spurs debate-AFP:
Ethiopian dam spurs debate
GIBE III, Ethiopia — The mud-coloured Omo River which snakes through green gorges, feeding lush vegetation and providing vital water to one of Ethiopia's most remote regions, will also power a contentious dam project.
The government says the Gibe III dam will boost development, give access to power for many Ethiopians -- about half of the population -- currently living without it, and generate revenue from the export of electricity to the region.
But with construction under way for Africa's highest dam at 243 metres (nearly 800 feet), critics say Ethiopia must also consider the environmental and social impact it will have on some 500,000 people living downstream and at Lake Turkana in neighbouring Kenya. Their livelihoods rely on the river.
"If they're going to build this huge hydro-power dam than it should be done in a way that benefits the people who are most affected," said David Turton, a senior research fellow at Oxford University's African Studies Centre.
The Omo River is over 700 kilometers (430 miles) long and supplies Lake Turkana with 80 percent of its water. It is a source of annual flooding for the agro-pastoralists living in the South Omo valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The completion of the dam in 2014, which will have a capacity of 1,870 megawatts, will regulate the river's flow and, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), offer a predictable water source for communities living along the river south of the dam.
Agro-pastoralists in Omo's valley have traditionally relied on flood-retreat agriculture for cultivation and animal grazing.
"Before, the wet season was two months, or maximum three months, then there was nine months of drought, now for 12 months there will be a regulated flow for all the downstream users," said EEPCo chief executive Mirhet Debebe.
The centuries-old flood-retreat agriculture practised by the downstream tribes is a cultural mainstay of the Bodi, Mursi and Nyangatom tribes, famed for their lip-plate and body painting customs.
But Azeb Aznake, Gibe III project manager at EEPCo, has said artificial flooding would be created annually "so that their practice is not interrupted."
She said the regular river flow would provide irrigation for small-scale cultivators downstream, and denied that the Gibe III dam would feed irrigation channels to nearby foreign-owned plantations, as some groups have charged.
"The purpose of the dam is for hydroelectric power, and nothing more," the power company executive said.
Most of the $1.8 billion (1.5 billion euro) cost of the project -- the third in a series of five dams planned along the Omo River -- will be covered by EEPCo, with a Chinese firm bankrolling the $400 million electromechanical costs.
The dam has been mired in controversy from the project's inception and the "Stop Gibe 3" online petition has collected over 18,000 signatures.
EEPCo's Azeb admitted that any project of this magnitude is bound to have an impact on local communities and ecosystems, but said the overall benefits were too great to ignore.
"Water is our major resource.... We have to make use of it and develop, we have to eat three times a day like any human being, so there has to be compromise," she said.
Power generated by the dam will be fed to a main transmission and sold to neighbouring Djibouti -- which is already receiving Ethiopian power -- as well as Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland, providing a major source of income, CEO Mihret said.
For Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the US-based think tank Oakland Institute, which is opposed to the dam's construction, the benefits are not widespread enough.
"It's really about who benefits and what benefits.... At the macro level you might have increased exports, economic growth, but what about human development, what happens to the people?" he said in a phone interview from California.
He urged the Ethiopian government to halt the dam's construction "so investment could go towards infrastructure that could really benefit the people."
Some nearby residents welcome the job opportunities that have accompanied the dam's constructions. Over 4,000 Ethiopians have been hired to help build Gibe III, which was started in 2006 and is over 50 percent complete.
"It is good for our development and the area's development (because) we get more employment," said Mengistu Mara, 26, a student in Lala town about 30 kilometres away from Gibe III.
His brother who works as a crane operator at the dam pays Mengistu's school fees at the local high school, built in 2009 by the dam's contractors.
"I'm learning now because my brother is bringing me money," he said, standing in front of the school built near the village's newly paved road.
Lala resident Desalegn Barata, 41, also welcomed the job creation, but said that even with the construction site next door his community still has no clinic.
"There is no clinic or hospital and there are many diseases here," he said, swatting at the flies swarming around him in the midday heat.
For analyst Turton, the government should prioritise social justice as the project moves ahead, saying it is possible to balance the benefits with the potential impact.
"This is often presented as a choice between development and what we sometimes call cultural preservation, it's presented as sometimes you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs," he said, adding that he is not opposed to the construction of Gibe III.
"But it should be done in a way that shows a concern for social justice."
Friday, June 1, 2012
Ethiopia powers on with controversial dam project
Ethiopia upsets neighbors with Dam plan
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Ethiopia is building the largest hydro-electric dam in Africa
The country says the Grand Renaissance Dam project could transform its economy
But neighboring Egypt and Sudan fearful that their water supply is under threat
Ethiopia says it will use machines to monitor and ensure the flow of water is stable
(CNN) -- The waters of the Blue Nile have for millennia flowed down from the Ethiopian highlands enriching the countries on its banks.
The rocks that make up its riverbed have been eroded by Ethiopia's past and now that the construction of Africa's largest hydro-electric dam has begun, these same rocks are helping to build the country's future.
The Grand Renaissance Dam project was announced last year by the Ethiopian government, in a unilateral move that is not sitting very well with its upstream neighbors. Egypt and Sudan say Ethiopia is threatening their greatest natural resource.
What's undisputed though is the sheer size of this undertaking close to Ethiopia's border with Sudan.
"It's not very easy to build a project of this magnitude in a remote area," explains Francesco Verdi, who oversees this project for Salini, the Italian construction firm that has been contracted by the Ethiopians to build the dam.
According to Verdi, 10% of the dam has been completed so far and teams are working day and night to stay on schedule.
The effort of this country is really, really impressive. They will produce clean energy using natural resources.
Francesco Verdi, Salini
"This is one of the largest dams in the world," Verdi says. "The effort of this country is really, really impressive. They will produce clean energy using natural resources."
More from MPA: Kenya PM: Sudan conflict threatens world oil prices
If construction stays on schedule the dam will be complete in six years. Ethiopia says the dam will generate 6,000 mega watts of electricity and it will sell a proportion of that to its neighbors and use the rest to fuel its own growth.
Semegnew Bekele is the Ethiopian engineer in charge of overseeing this mammoth project. He has worked on three other dams in Ethiopia, but this will be his and his country's first attempt at damming the Blue Nile.
"This Nile river originates from our country and flows without giving any benefit to us so now we are able to utilize this river," he explains.
Meeting Bekele, it becomes obvious that this project is a source of immense personal and national pride and in Ethiopia at least he has become a bit of a celebrity -- he regularly gets stopped in the street by people congratulation him on the dam and asking how it is progressing.
It might be a source of pride for Bekele and Ethiopia, but for Egypt and Sudan this project is deeply contentious.
Egypt with its population time bomb is particularly worried -- nearly 85% of its water originates in Ethiopia. Egyptians say they will not be held hostage over water, explains Yarcob Arsarno, who is an expert on hydro-politics at Addis Ababa University.
"Sudan and Egypt have got their concerns. Building a huge project on the water that goes down to Sudan, they would think that water would be controlled by Ethiopia and Ethiopia would be much more powerful in terms of influence in the Nile basin."
The Nile Treaty that is meant to govern the use of the Blue Nile between the three nations was in fact signed by colonial powers in the region. Ethiopia says it never signed the agreement and the so-called Nile Basin Initiative only provides a framework for the use of the Nile waters.
More from MPA: Using the web to fight corruption
This is a signal of Ethiopia moving from an aid dependent economy to a can-do economy.
Henock Assefa, economist
Egypt and Sudan are particularly worried that this dam will allow Ethiopia to control the flow of water. Ethiopia denies this and says it will use machines to monitor and ensure the flow remains stable.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has dismissed these concerns and warned against what he called "dam extremists."
Zenawi and his government stress that this dam project could potentially transform Ethiopia's economy. It is a view shared by some of the diplomatic community in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. One diplomat told Marketplace Africa that this dam will be "like an ATM of hard currency for Ethiopia". Many economists also agree on the dam's economic potential.
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"Hydropower is the cheapest electricity you can generate anywhere so Ethiopia has huge advantages for that and Ethiopia will export enough power to make a difference in the economy," says Henock Assefa, an economist and managing partner of Precise Consult International based in Addis Ababa.
"This is a signal of self-reliance. This is a signal of Ethiopia moving from an aid dependent economy to a can-do economy. We're going to do this with or without you. The Ethiopian government is issuing bonds and the population, all 85 million of us, are buying bonds in order to chip in to this huge Nile project."
But will Ethiopia be able to raise enough money to continue to build this dam? Some economists believe the country has only raised 10% of the project's total cost. There are also reports that civil servants have been forced to contribute one month's salary towards the project. These are accusations the government denies.
International Rivers, an organization working against destructive riverside projects, says that the Ethiopian government has not allowed an open discussion about the funding and merits of this dam. International Rivers points to the case of an Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu who has been jailed for daring to criticize the government's centerpiece project. Ethiopian authorities say Alemu is on trial over terror charges.
What is not up for debate is how determined Ethiopia is to fulfill its aspiration as the "battery of East Africa."
All over Addis Ababa, new buildings are rising. According the African Development Bank, Ethiopia's economy last year grew by 7.5% and although inflation also rose to 31.5% the country has successful grown its average income by 50% over the past decade.
The International Monetary Fund, though, is ringing alarm bells. Given this region's history of drought, the IMF is recommending that governments avoid dependency on hydropower as an engine of growth.
As they dig into ancient bedrock for their futuristic dam, it seems the Ethiopians believe this is a risk worth taking.
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