Africa's highest dam opens flood of debate
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.
Workers in an underground passage at the Gibe III dam under
construction in Ethiopia’s Omo valley. The Gibe III dam is set
to be completed by 2013 and will be Africa’s tallest at 243
metres high. AFP |
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 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. AFP |