Ethiopia plan to drain L. Turkana

The Omo River Basin is the source of the only remaining desert lake in the world — Lake Turkana. Yet a dam is about to be built in it.

The Gibe III hydro-electric project is a private partnership, part of the 25-year national energy master plan of Ethiopia. Planned to generate 1,870 MW of electricity), the dam will soar 240 metres high, with a reservoir 151 kilometres long.

Billed to be the second largest dam in Africa after Aswan in Egypt, Gibe III Project will cost Sh122.7 billion ($1.7 billion) for which foreign financing is currently being sought. Ethiopia hopes to export electricity to Djibouti, Sudan (200MW) and Kenya (500MW).

But Ethiopia’s boom in hydro-dam development could lead to social, environmental and economic harm.

Ethiopia’s institutions lack the ability to enforce compliance with environmental safeguards — they lack manpower, money and public accountability. Civil society groups fear government repression should they criticise the project.

Public debt will shoot up, to be borne by the same communities affected by the dam. People downstream and farmers, both in Ethiopia and Kenya, will feel the brunt if Gibe III is allowed to go on.

First, there will be the radical reduction of inflow into Lake Turkana since River Omo provides 100 per cent inflow.

Earthquakes and massive landslides are common by-products of huge dam construction. But more directly, riverine forests and woodland will be eliminated, with attendant negative effects on more than 500,000 indigenous pastoralists and agro-pastoralists within the lower Omo River Basin.

We can also expect exponential increase in expropriation of pastoral and agro-pastoral lands in the riverine zone for government sponsored large-scale irrigation for agriculture and industry.

PERVASIVE DOWNSTREAM DESTRUCtion of ecological systems will not be mitigated by planned flood simulation (or flood release from reservoir).

Although described as a definite component of the proposed Gibe III programme, it is a fact that there is no case of successful implementation of flood simulation within sub-Sahara Africa.

Shockingly, with all the above factors, Kenya has gone ahead since August 2006 to negotiate with Ethiopia for a power supply deal. Yet various studies indicate that Kenya is endowed with substantial renewable energy, including solar and wind power.

Why is it that the one natural resource we have in abundance — sunshine — is not harnessed more? Not only would this satisfy Africa’s energy needs, it could also help ease the relentless pressure on the environment?

Hydro power is all very well, but with climate change linked to erratic rainfall, this may not be the best option, and Gibe III Project is no exception.

The world has had three revolutions — agricultural, industrial, and information. The fourth one is the green revolution that reverses climate change damage for sustained developments.

North Africa has done an impressive job of harnessing clean energy. One advantage is that there is foreign money behind it — around $800 billion in all — to set up fields in the Sahara to collect sunshine to power turbines. Europe and the Middle East might soon light up using this energy.

But the moneymen seem to be saying: “We will put up the cash if we can share the spoils”, and spoils are there. The World Bank estimates that of the 35 countries in the world with the most potential for solar energy, 17 are in sub-Sahara Africa, Kenya included.

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