Ethiopian officials reject UN calls to suspend controversial dam project
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Tesfa-Alem Tekle
August 11, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopian officials have dismissed a
call by a UN’s World Heritage Committee to halt the construction of
Gilgel Gibe III power plant project. The project team defended the dam
on Thursday.
JPEG - 16.3 kb
An El Molo boy fetching water in Lake Turkana (Reuters)
The UN body recently called on the Ethiopian government to suspend
constructing the hydropower project arguing that it lacks
environmental and social impact assessments and endangers one the
World’s Heritage site, Kenya’s Lake Turkana.
World Heritage sites are of outstanding cultural or natural importance
to the common heritage of humanity and are conserved and catalogued
accordingly.
The Ethiopian government claimed that it has undertaken thorough
studies and taken precautionary measures to protect Lake Turkana;
insisting to continue constructing the US$1.7 billion power project
expected to generate 1,870 MW of electricity up on completion.
“The impact studies made by both local and international experts
establish Gilgel Gibe III dam does not endanger Lake Turkana” Project
manager Azeb Asnake said on Thursday reflecting country’s unchanged
stand.
She asserted that the dam instead will have a positive effect on the
lake and will regulate the water flow of the OmoRiver, preventing
floods and raising the water level during dry seasons.
The World Heritage Committee which monitors World Heritage Sites
worldwide called on China’s development bank and other financiers “to
put on hold their financial support” until the Committee reviews this
issue until the next annual meeting in June 2012.
"No matter what is reported, the project will continue, and financing
of the project is certain as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China has provided 470 million dollars, and the remaining might be
covered by Ethiopia," Misikir Negash, public relations officer for
Ethiopia Electrical Power Co., told a local news paper, Fortune.
The projects is also facing protest from a number of environmental
groups who argue that as well as having a devastating impacts on the
Omo River and Lake Turkana, the project will also effect 500,000
indigenous people who depend on the river and lake for their
livelihoods.
Recognised and protected as a World Heritage Site in 1997, Lake
Turkana in Kenya and Ethiopia, is the world’s largest permanent desert
lake and the world’s largest alkaline lake. According to the World
Heritage Committee, its unique ecosystem has made it “an outstanding
laboratory for the study of plant and animal communities.”
Having a total of nine recognised World Heritage sites; Ethiopia is
currently among the 21 members of the World Heritage Committee.
(ST)
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