Environmental Concerns
Opposition grows against Ethiopia dam and power plant
The building of the GIBE III dam and hydro-electric power plant is attracting yet more opposition from the international environmental watchdogs, relevant NGOs, local advocacy groups, and the affected communities following ever more details emerging over the scale of displacement of local people living in affected areas.
The opposition movement also gained further strength, when the Gibe II dam partly collapsed only days after formally commissioning it, resulting in accusations of shoddy work and warning of the potential fallout should something like this also happen at the Gibe III project.
The "stop the dam" campaign is being taken to the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and other financial institutions thought to be availing finance for the project, demanding firm action of them over claims that their own internal guidelines over the building of dams had been shoved aside and that the financiers' environmental policies and regulations had been ignored by the developers, the government, and the participating companies and agencies, in favor of a fast tracking of the proposed 1.800 MW power plant, said to cost nearly US$2 billion when completed.
Added allegations have also now been made over deals the Ethiopian government allegedly made with international firms to grow bio fuel crops in areas around the proposed dam and resulting lake at the expense of literally chasing the present tens if not hundreds of thousands of residents away with little, if any, hope of finding them suitable grazing grounds for their livestock or arable land for cultivation elsewhere. The same organizations also alleged that the government in Addis Ababa is systematically dissolving community organizations to stifle protests, prevent community meetings, and generally doing all it can to keep the truth from area residents.
Across the border in Kenya there is further concern over the remaining waters the Omo river may eventually carry into Lake Turkana, which in recent years has already shrunk sizeably as a result of drought, less and less water inflow, and increased evaporation of surface water as a result of rising temperatures. It is estimated that nearly 90 percent of the water inflow to Lake Turkana comes from the Omo river and that any further reduction might prove too much for the lake to survive as a source of fresh water and fish due to the expected rise in salinity of the water then remaining.
The lake, once teeming with Nile Perch and other fish species, has lost much of its biodiversity in past decades already, and nomadic tribes living off their herds of goat and cattle find it increasingly more difficult to water their animals as the shores of the lake continue to recede further and further.
UNESCO has made Lake Turkana and part of the Omo valley into World Heritage sites, a status under growing threat of being withdrawn to the detriment of tourism operators bringing visitors to these remote places. Dr. Leakey, whose family rose to international fame for their digs in Olduvai/Tanzania and Kobi Fora along Lake Turkana and their finds of evidence of our human ancestors, has added his voice to the growing chorus of opposition, reportedly calling the project "fatally flawed" and alleging that "...the EIA was an inside job that has come up with the results they were looking for to get the initial funding for this dam." Strong words but clearly justified and from someone so highly respected that it will be hard to dismiss his concern or rubbish him professionally.
Other sources in Kenya further claim and allege that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was done retrospectively, without any of the internationally-required stakeholder consultations and kept under lock and key, only for the eyes of financiers who were meant to be duped into believing the allegedly concocted report. The impact on Lake Turkana and the Omo river is, according to the report, very small and the number of nomads and communities living in the area has been reduced to a fraction of the real populations, reminding this correspondent of the similar attempts by AES of Virginia made 10 years ago in their initial studies for the Bujagali dam, where they were also belittling the tourism value of the upper Nile valley to a laughable figure in the face of reality on the ground. Ten years down the line, they still stand exposed for this gross attempt to mislead.
The Kenyan government and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in Nairobi have also come under scrutiny over their behind-closed-door dealings with the Ethiopians, but apparently an agreement has been signed between the two countries to connect the power grids, paving the way to import hydro-electric power from Ethiopia into Kenya without following the proper procedure of undertaking a separate EIA and assessing the impact of the Gibe III dam project on the Kenyan side of the border.
This correspondent only recently reported on plans to build two wind-propelled power plants in the wider Turkana region, able to generate up to 600 MW, while the importation of electricity from the disputed plant would more than likely only provide 400 MW. Activists from Kenya, Turkana, and their international supporters will be engaging Ethiopia more and more in the international arena from here forward and will undoubtedly leave no stone unturned to either stop or significantly alter the project for the good of the long-term survival of the environment.
Comments
i don't believe this. the europeans seem to be concerned when ethiopians face drought and help in food assistance which by the way does not help a country to stand own it's feet. we now know the formula to bring change once and for all in Ethiopia i.e. power generation which will boost any econnomic activity( agriculture, industry etc.) and transportation networking( road, rail, air). if the EU is a genuin helper it woud support this activities. Britain may be looking after it's commomwealth state(kenya) by a cover name of "enviromental damage" but it is sure to fail as time is against the old way of doing things. China is helping Africa a great deal than the evil thinking colonizers of the past. when china now is involved in building roads and other infrastracture, the west says 'be careful' china is not a good trade partner. the late emperor Haile selaisse thought he would get great achievement by allying himself against the U.S. and he had nothing to show for it. China with this short period of time did many things in ethiopia and they will surely fund the Gilgel Gibe 3 project. they say china is bad trade partener but we say at least China has something to show for it so let them be a bad trade partner.
Dear sirs,
even the Eastafrican newspaper in Kenya wrote a big article about the issues of this dam and the problems for the Kenyan lake Turkana in big details and good facts. Even in our papers in Uganda this was discussedand they have the same conclusions, are they liars also?
Now those writers are good scholars of Mengistu and Meles, with how they abuse and sqeak. Shoting the messsenger does not solve the problems the dam will bring, and local people will be displaced and little benefit will reach them but those in Adis Abbaba.
And to the editor, to allow such bad racist language is also a shame on you too.
Yours faithfully
Mukasa Fred M. from Uganda
Why isn't there at least one comment supporting this article. This shows how much Wolfgang is a lier and everybody is aware of it.
There is an old adage that says "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". While these groups may mean well, it is inconceivable for the rest of us living the realities on the ground in Ethiopia and Kenya, none of what they claim makes sense.
Here are the facts on Gibe III:
Is a large renewable source of energy that doesn't pollute the environment of kenya and Ethiopia
It's production costs are so low that it will help to lower the insane price Kenyans pay for electricity produced using coal and fossil fuels while polluting the environment
The dam will allow millions of Ethiopian and Kenyan farmers to use electricity instead of cutting trees to cook food. This has always been a major reason for deforestation and environmental degradation in the region.
Cheaper electricity will allow both Kenya and Ethiopia to attract further job creating investment
The Agrarian communities living on the banks of Omo are in fact spared from the furry of the river which has in recent years swept away entire villages. Water would now be regulated to minimize floods during heavy rains and provide water during the long dry season.
The effect on Lake Turkana is also shown to be limited. Noone is saying the water will not flow downstream. It's flow is merely redistributed over the course of the year.
Unfortunately, the "do-gooders" claiming to be against Gibe III have already realized that their case is very weak. Recently, they have resorted to disseminating misinformation instead of trying to convince people about their position truthfully.
The people of Kenya and Ethiopia deserve to know the facts. No ivory tower dwelling, I know it for you NGO's can decide our fate and condemn us to live in the abject poverty that have degraded our dignity for decades.
Support sustainable development based on clean renewable energy in Ethiopia and Kenya. Support GibeIII.
Visit our information website purely designed in support of Gibe III for more information. www.gibedam.org.
The West's hypocrisy has no bound. While cities and towns in the west glitter with excess light, they pressure lending institutions from supporting the construction of clean hydro power in Ethiopia. They want Africans to live in perpetual darkness in the name of "saving the environment". Buzz off, arse hole!
First of all, this is not your business at all,don't try to convince us that we have to buy everything from you to balance your export needs. If you really care about the people of Africa, write about all the nuclear wastes being thrown off of north Africa by France, the UK and other EU members.
Mr, so called journalist,
Who the hell do you think you are to try to deny Ethiopia to exploit its God given natural to the advantage of its 80 million+ people.
Get life Mr. Wolfang. The country you are dealing with is Ethiopia and the people Ethiopians.
Even if the west fails to support this grand project, we will rally around it and work toward the realization of the dam.
Oh boy what is wrong with these German people with wind energy? Just the other day UNEP exec director (a german) said thru his officers wind is good and damming is damn! (http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Kenya,-Ethiopia-cautioned-on-p...)
Wolfgang, another german (at least he was chairman of german business in uganda) living and working in uganda advises the private sector(His clients do not allow him to mention their names, shame!). Also Correspondent for Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean region at eTurboNews
Inc(http://www.linkedin.com/ppl/webprofile?vmi=&id=70425527&pvs=pp&authToken...)
Who is he to say anything about gilgel gibe? Well, german connection....all they want to tell you is wind wind wind wind farm build wind turbines.....
As it turns out to be, germany and its GmbHs (private companies) are leads in the technology around the world. (http://www.wind-energy-market.com/index.php?id=15&no_cache=1&L=0)
I can see what Wolfgang is trying to say: why you poor people labor damming rivers while germany can sell you wind energy? Fair enough! Can he give us an estimate how much would we be paying if we want to buy those technologies, say one that generates 200mw? lets see what he says....ALL SHAM, MAN! Schitze!
It is these kind of people who petition for don;t finance the building of the day. My friends we should start our own counter petition for potential financiers that they should be financed! will contact you though the petition page.
Dear Sir/Madam,
How sad that you are unable to discern the phenomenal mistake you have committed by opposing the financing of Gibe III. As concerned environmentalist you should be worrying more about power stations fuelled by atomic energy and coal or diesel oil. No, you do not wish to do that for some unknown reason that I shall leave to the reader to guess. Hydroelectric power is about the cleanest form of energy. The number of people to be affected either by displacement or untoward effect upon their livelihood is less than 10,000. On the other hand the people that will remain in fathomless poverty if the dam is not built is in the millions. The fellow you worship and admire so much, Dr. Leakey "Terreblanche", peace be unto him, is dubbling in environmental issues for which he is not qualified at all. He is trying to bank upon his reputation in a different field. This will justify me in calling Leakey an impostor of the worst kind peddling his bias as science. Let me tell you sir, Kenya produces electricity for the price of 20 c per kwh, while Ethiopia is offering electricity for 6 c. Anybody in his right senses should make the right choice. What you and your ilk are trying to do is to attack Ethiopi's soft underbelly, because it is a poor country struggling to acquire loan. I doubt if you would have protested against the rich countries i a similar case. The damage and injury the dam will cause upon the tourist industry is truly interesting. Are you suggesting that the
½ million people you worry about should in all eternity run around naked and with saucers in their lips for the benefit European and American tourists? In that case you are enemy number one of Africans, i particular of those living a precarious life around lake Turkana.
eliminate hunger in Ethiopia and apartheid in Kenya.If Leakey is true to the Kenyan people, he should work on the current issue Kenyans are facing, their inability to use the same hotel or school or bar he, Leakey , is enjoying. The quest for the third world countries to support themselves should be encouraged not discouraged. In Kenya, the good stuff is reserved for Europeans and Asians, it is pity that Mr. Leakey is not mentioning this but the life of 200,000 when millions are dying, even the number 200,000 is not a correct number it is just a number to make his argument weighty.
PRESS RELEASE Rome, 7 April 2010
GIBE III: THE SURVIVAL FIGURES ARE OBVIOUSLY INCORRECT
Some non-government organizations have raised criticisms and concerns over the Gibe III project, although they are not in possession of adequate information or adequate competences to assess them. On some occasions, this has led to a flow of inappropriate news, assessments and initiatives.
Salini Costruttori feels the need to provide some clarifications on a project concerning the energy, economic and social future of millions of people in Ethiopia and the entire region.
The Gibe III project involves an important 240 metre high dam located at Gilgel Gibe I and II, generating an artificial lake approximately 150 km long.
The basin produced by the dam is of approximately 14 billion cubic metres, and not 216 billion cubic metres, as incorrectly calculated and announced dramatically and alarmingly. In simple terms, the valley storage volume of this type of construction is similar to a frustum of pyramid and not to a parallelepiped, as it has been wrongly assumed. The volume is therefore not the same as the surface area of the lake multiplied by the height of the dam, as the slope of the banks and the river have to be taken into consideration.
Furthermore, the storage volume is located in a very narrow valley, below the level considered safe for humans, and therefore there are no homes to be removed from the basin of the dam. Specifically, this volume of water is accumulated by drawing water when the level is at its highest, but the average level of the river does not decrease once this water is stored: the electrical plant will use exactly the same of water as it produces.
The filling of the basin will be conducted in a minimum of three seasons, and the impact will imply a reduction in the water level in lake Turkana of less than 50 cm per year for three years. This reduction is negligible for a lake in which the seasonal variations are on average in the order of one metre over the last few years, due to the rainfall varying by several metres, without there having been any human intervention. We are therefore a long way short of the five or even twelve metre fall in water level that have been mentioned by detractors of the dam project.
In addition to the error in calculating the storage volume of the area taken up, all the dramatic repercussions envisaged as a catastrophic consequence of the reduction in water level of the lake are also unreal:
• the project will not cause drought: the dam will not block the flow of water to the river indefinitely, but merely redistribute it during the course of the year;
• the salinity of lake Turkana will not change in any way: its “drinkability”, and therefore it rich marine biodiversity, will remain exactly the same;
• as the salinity of lake Turkana will remain unchanged, the activities connected to the local fishing trade will not be destroyed, and therefore, the lives of the Ethiopians and Kenyans living in the area will not change in any way whatever;
• as the water level in lake Turkana will not decrease, any inter-tribal conflicts will certainly not be worsened by the construction of the dam, but rather by the current poverty of these people as it is proven by the fact that they have been waging war for centuries and there was no dam involved.
• humid areas will not suffer from particular effects, also because the creation of artificial floods enables the reproduction of the surrounding natural habitat, avoiding the current disasters and loss of human life;
• agriculture will be able to benefit from a constant supply of water throughout the year, enabling richer harvests and the use of more modern farming techniques, making the people living in the area self-sufficient in terms of food and water.
On the contrary, the presence of the dam will imply a number of direct and immediate positive aspects for the local people:
• the regulation of the flow of river water and filtering off of the floods will avoid the extermination of people that occurred in the past (the last of which, in 2006, caused hundreds of victims and the loss of thousands of livestock animals).
• during periods when the water level is low, due to consecutive years with a lack of rain, the presence of the dam will mitigate the reduction in water level both by reducing evaporation and by returning part of the volume accumulated in the basin, with an opposite effect in terms of stability to that envisaged by the organizations campaigning against the dam. In other words, the dam will stabilise the water level in the lake during dry seasons, when it would otherwise reduce drastically;
• the redistribution of the flow of water throughout the year will also enable to perform irrigation agriculture during the dry season, leading to an obvious increase in the capacity of the local people to be self-sufficient; these people today depend on external aid for 60% of their food and water, rather than from the backward systems of local agriculture;
• the availability of electricity will enable easier access to drinking water and better sanitary conditions, in addition to the expansion of the local micro-industry, based on fishing, livestock and agriculture, and the obvious improvement in the average life expectancy of people in the area, which is currently among the lowest in the world;
• lastly, despite the fact that the project will have a largely positive impact and enable the people living in the area to access sustainable development, the system will also be equipped with whatever is required to make this development occur gradually. As some of the people in the area practice flood-retreat agriculture, despite the very low levels of productivity, the dam will have discharges such as to enable the controlled reproduction of floods when necessary and reproduce the effects of natural floods, limiting water flow to that necessary for agricultural purposes, avoiding the past destructive effects of overflows. This will enable the local people to have a transitory period of a suitable duration when it is deemed opportune to switch from flood-retreat agriculture to more modern forms of agriculture.
As regards the administrative aspects, it should be recalled that all ongoing projects undertaken by Salini Costruttori in Ethiopia have received the approval required from the competent authorities, specifically the “Non Objection” of the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) and have been certified to be in full compliance with Ethiopian law. The studies of an environmental and social nature and those concerning consultancies and waterworks have been published on the EEPCo website and those of the Financing Bodies, and details have been added as regards pertinent aspects raised by any competent source.
It can therefore be safely concluded that when the dam is built and operations, Gibe III will produce electricity for all of Ethiopia and for Kenya, contributing towards political stability in the region; it will provide water for agriculture and thus food safety and will improve the environmental and sanitary conditions and reduce the causes of current conflicts.
Press office:
eprcomunicazione
chiocchetti@eprcomunicazione.it
Hmm, the most pressing issue now is not what these people are talking but to eliminate hunger in Ethiopia and apartheid in Kenya.If Leakey is true to the Kenyan people, he should work on the current issue Kenyans are facing, their inability to use the same hotel or school or bar he, Leakey , is enjoying. The quest for the third world countries to support themselves should be encouraged not discouraged. In Kenya, the good stuff is reserved for Europeans and Asians, it is pity that Mr. Leakey is not mentioning this but the life of 200,000 when millions are dying, even the number 200,000 is not a correct number it is just a number to make his argument weighty.
It is amazing how would be "do gooders" scramble to find a cause they want to support -- often with little or no real knowledge of the full extent of what they are advocating. I am frankly sick of such groups/individuals. We need less of such "know it alls" and more of people who actually want to engage by doing something good on the ground -- may be in their own community or somewhere where they really take the time and effort to understand "their cause".
This dam will be built -- with or without the help of international financiers, because the need for it is obvious and urgent and because the overall benefits to all concerned outweighs the potential negative impacts to all concerned.
So, please leave these people alone and find something in your own backyard -- about which you may have some legitimate claim to advocate. (And please don't tell me about your right to advocate for anything in our "only planet". Almost all developed nations for sure don't seem to allow anyone else to encroach in their domestic affairs.
I say bravo to the Ethiopians who seem to be determined to develop their infrastructure in spite of the barrage of unsolicited "advice" from "international" knuckle heads telling them to "please don't disturb the environment and just stay in the dark and be happy knowing that there is a lake 600 miles away that will be teaming with fish". Then will come another no good advocacy group and rant about why a country with so much renewable energy potential keeps its people in the dark,
Do you think you care more about ETHIOPIANS living in and around the Omo River valley than other fellow Ethiopians??? Please give me a break!
Your arrogance and conceit is beyond belief.
Well well well
The so-called Environmentalists and journalists are trying to curve the development path that Ethiopia is following, but little they learn from history.
We Ethiopians never give up and never get bullied to abandon our development and that is exactly what history teach us with the way we fought the ruthless colonizing forces. Well this is a modern colonization trying to bully us and guess what? Europe is no longer the judge and jury of this world’s affaires.
We know you do not care about the people of Ethiopia in general and those who supposed to be affected in particular. Perhaps your motive is serving the big corporations in the west who wants to see Africa remain a dark continent so that they can sell whatever they want to us. But little you know that you can’t manipulate and bully Africa anymore. In fact we are in a position to switch our alliance and abandon the so-called developed Europeans and there is nothing you can do about it. China is a prime example and it looks like they are truly a development partner who doesn’t try to bully anyone.
So whatever you do, you can’t bully any one in Africa and the so-called Environmentalist (Employees of Big Corporations) you are playing with fire and this will make you stupid and question your credibility at best.
E turbo news is a mouthpiece of ' Global Travel Industry news' and Herr Wolfgang is an expert on environmental impact of the Gibe Hydro Project,if that is the case, I am the Messiah. This a total rubbish article meant to benefit those tour operators who send their clients to the Omo Valley to take picture of the exotic tribes and some to trek along the Omo Gorge in rafts. In realty, this article was rehashed from the Press release of International Rivers which has been the most radical organisation fighting hydro projects, mainly in Africa from Cameroon to Ethiopia. A certain Terry Hathaway along with DR Leakey are the preeminent actors in this drama. While the Ethiopian and Kenyan govt along with their people have reached an agreement in principle to utilize the great potential of the Omo river, these white folks are running amok worried about insignificant alteration in the lives of some of the indigenous inhabitants. Truth be told, these folks have been suffering from flooding and inconsistency of the river flow for centuries. The Omo river rises in the Bale Mountains and gushes during the rainy season and trickles to be a stream most other times. The fact the water is going to be stored during the rainy season in the cooler highlands will only make life for folks downstream easier as they and their grazing animals wont be flooded to be eaten by Nile crocodiles. That is the true environmental consequence of this mighty project. Aside from generating green and clean energy, it will stem erosion and make the nomadic tribes establish some sort of normalcy by allowing them to tab to a perennial river and irrigate the adjacent land along the lower basin. Even if there were some alteration in the water flow into lake Turkana which is already saline, it can be mitigated by digging channels from numerous other rivers within striking distance of the Omo like the Baro and Genale rivers as was done in the eastern United States in the past century. The project is about 35% complete and any attempt to forestall it shows the true color of this modern day Cecil Rhodes . It is condescending at best and racist and fascist at worst.
Those who are advocating for wind turbine which has to be installed for dozens or even hundreds of miles in some of the most unstable region of Africa where every tribesman is armed to the tooth must have lost their marble. Already in the US numerous folks where these turbines have been installed are complaining about their noise and i wont be surprised if those living in Africa will be welcoming them by using them as target practice for every one of these tribes possesses Kalashnikov and other assault rifles.This is in addition to what was stated above about the deficiency of this technology.
The rational path, considering that the project is a third underway, is not to try to stall its financing but to approach the govt of Ethiopia and Kenya with ways of mitigating any possible side effect. Otherwise, all this rattling is nothing short of waging war on the Ethiopian people and their aspiration. The tour operators, the anthropologists and the environmental loonies have joined hands in trying to stop the unstoppable. It will take a little longer but the genie has left the bottle and please get a life
Today it seems only the Gibe Dam
I propose We have to look for an attractive carrot elsewhere in the world and point it to these vultures so that these so called environmental watchdogs WAKOS rush for it
This liers are trying to keep Ethiopia under poverty forever.They want to see Ethiopians asking for aid, all the time. This projecti is going to light for 80 million people in Ethiopia while it might affect a few people, (if it really does). The so called human rights and journalist, but the true spies, working to keep Africa under poverity is their final dream. This project is one of the best projects planed in Afraican soil. this is the time that Ethiopian need to work togther and fund the project if World bank is not going to fund it.
Please let your cynical and pretentious...we care about the world...cry for yourself and your alike.
You were dooming the world since the industrial revolution with your carbon and green house emissions and now you are trying to tell us that we r hurting the environment because we r trying to develop an environmentally friendly energy source.
As much as I do not appreciate the way the current government is handling issues locally,your shouting foul makes me sick,puke...who are you after all to tell us what do, of course you have been manipulating us for all you can and you have got all the power ,you can shove your bills in your a**,it is not something new for us not to have a shoulder to lean on actually we have learned our lessons,we don't really need your shoulder...we have got each others.No matter how much you f**ing sob's are trying to get ETH and the Kenyan's apart with your usual ....Divide and Rule...it ain't working...it is a different era Mr. Wolfgang(by the way are u really a journalist or is this something like your hobby...cause you have not even tried to follow the ethics of journalism...otherwise,for sure you do not have a boss around).
Anyhoo,man....you just destroyed my day with your crap of Our world and the Environment...the usual pretending......
And one thing... No one is saying GIII has got no disadvantage for the environment...yes it does but the price we r gonna pay is not a destruction like you guys are preaching but a price worthy of changing the life of the Poor there.
This information is far far from the truth. You making a claim about how this project is gone affect the people in kanya but in fact what is doing is helping even 10,000 more in ethiopia. If you claim to be a enviromental am sure you have done the research that the USA uses about 25% of worlds electrick city compined where do you this america gets it? We both know that that's not from season rains. So stop with this minuplating information about you care for the enviroment if you do the first place to start is in USA and CHINA and leave my country out of this lie. We have our own feet to stand on we don't need you guys.
Of course any projec may cause certain impact locally or beyond this.But in Gibe-III hydropower project case,the impact is really insignificant compared to the developmet to come both for the locally dewelling people(< 500,000) and the countries in th region. The opposition looks unwise, self-centred, is without convinsing fact and is simply intended to keep Ethiopia under poverty even for the next decades.The nomadic people living around the Omo River are extremely poor and have no hope to see the developments and chance we have. Hence, this project should be proceeded, donners should backup the country(Ethiopia), and even this opposition group should cease negating this positive development.Otherwise, it looks jelousy and anti-development protest.
The people who are talking against this dam construction lack professional knowledge. Perhapes they are simply pushed by a payment from some groups who have business interest like Oil Companies and wind propeler suppliers.
Even a junior civil engineering graguate can do the analysis to justify how building this dam is environmental friendly. First of all it generates energy which is important for the devlopment of the entire East Africa. Tell me which one is Enviromental friendly buying oil from middle east to run generator and release tons of CO2 to the atmosphere or using hydro power, which do you think Kenya prefers? Secondly no drop of water will be lost as the water only hits the terbine and goes back to its natural stream. Third there will not be no more natural disaster as the water in the river will flow in a regulated manner, and due to that people at down stream will never be flooded and there will still be constant water flow in the river and water will be available for the people at down stream even during the driest season. Fourth the government will establish a new vilage with school and hospital for the very few displaced and they will get a previllage which they have never dreamt of. Therefore I request those people who would like to write technical matters first to consult proffessionals.
Besides I think first condomn what obama trying to do digging oil wells and explore which is a thousand times more hazardeouse than this important dam.
All the best.
Dear Mr. Thome, I read your article and I didn't get anything useful in it. It is more flaud than the EIA that your are trying to acuse. You don't care for our people. It has never been your concern at all. What you want to do is sell some more of your windmills or whatever that your sponsors are producing. We all know that those things are useless. They cost about four times the cost of building a hydroelectric dam and they produce one third as much energy as they are said to be producing under ambient conditions. You can look at the recent agreement signed by our gov't and the French gov't. Besides the cost of maintenace is very high. They are not as reliable as you want us to believe. So, save your voice. Leave us alone, we have the best interest of oour people at hand and we want to build this dam. We know very well that you don't want to believe it but an EIA can also be done by non white people.
I simply cannot believe that there is an organization that speaks against this. Often not addressing important issues for their argument. These people that ask the world bank not to fund the project are simly using simple facts. They pretend they speak for the people when it is quiet abvious that they are speaking against the poor people. I was totally apposed to meles the whole time but now growing up all with the critisms and all, I don't accept this at all. But those people should be given a place to live and education and have some form of income or jobs.
I am not impressed with your reporting. While I am no fan of the regime in Addis, this project is a god send for all Ethiopians including those living in the Omo valley. It seems that you would rather have these people remain where they are to serve your voyeuristic interests rather than improve their lives which is only possible with access to modern infrastructure including reliable source of power.
Have any of you actually spoken with the residents of the Omo valley? I have. Like ever other human they dream of a day when they can access all of the modern conviniences that you and I have. They would rather not be poked and proded to display themelves for you people to support themselves.
I am writing you this mail to express my discontent with your position regard to this project. You and the like so called "enviromentalist" NGOs do not care anything if we Africans increase our standard of life. For you it is nothing that most of the Ethiopian people live with out light even the ones fortunate with one lamp have to wait for their turn every other day. What a shame!! you do not have any moral ground to talk on behalf of us. We don't need your crocodile tears. It would have been much better if you say, stop this dam in the name of: (1)Western sociologists who will lose a much needed study material. 'pagan, primitive, backward' societies around the Omo river. (2) Adventurous western tourists who can boast about their experience deep inside dark Africa. Otherwise how come any one with healthy mind can cry foul with out proposing a single alternative for a nation with 80 millions. For God sake, don't mention ur wind-propelled power plant here. Everybody knows that thery are unreliable. I can send you that a European union study which says most of the time wind propelled power plants only produce half of the intended power. So save ur propaganda for yourself!! And we know who is paying you for this cheap propaganda.
Do you think development is not sth we Ethiopians and Africans in general do not need? Do you seriously think that the people you seemed to lobby and the whole Africans should live at the mercy of mother nature? What a shame!! You want Ethiopia and Africa to remain dark. But don't worry we start the march, we will build Gibe III and will continue Gibe IV, V, etc. There is one saying in Ethiopia...The dog will continue barking but the camel will not stop the march. The most you can do is delaying the project. Go for it! You still think money is everything and money is building the dam. I have bad news for you and the like that it is the Ethiopian people who is building the dam and thier courageous believes!! So get over it!!
Mr. Wolfgang, save ur bulshit propagand for yourself. If you are true journalsit you can ask the other side of the story. Go Ethiopia and ask average guys and you will get proper answer. We Ethiopians never surendered for bulshit white propgandas even in those colonization era, let alone now. you don't know us. So write as much you can, but you can never and never stop us from developing and building the dam!! You will see in near future Gibe IV and Gibe V. Get over it!!
No, opposition is not growing. It's the same old extremists, recycling the same lies, and fabricating new lies, on a weekly basis.
There is nothing new here. It's the same old extremists, engaged in their usual lies and defamation.
They can go ahead repeat their lies ad naauseam, but they can't and will not stop Gilgle Gibe 3.
This is f***ing insane! Here we (Ethiopians) are trying to develop an environmentally friendly source of energy that will benefit 80-plus million people that potentially MIGHT impact the livelihood of less than half a million people, and the f***ing know-it-alls are crying foul?!??!!? How dare you tell us you care more for our people than we do?!?!?!?! Of course, that is taking your professed motives at face value, which would be unwise. I suspect other ulterior motives are at work here because the objections to the project have varied from concern to the livelihood of the indigenous people, the impact to the environment, to the way the contract was awarded (no competitive bidding). Makes one wonder if perhaps you're promoting the agenda of some contractor who's pissed because they were not given a chance?!?! Or a wind energy player who'd rather see a project that benefits their business, etc, etc....the possibilities are many but I am willing to wager concern for the local people is only a cynical pretext!
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