Gibe III dam
Encyclopedia
The Gilgel Gibe III Dam is an under construction 243 m high roller-compacted concrete
dam with an associated hydroelectric power plant on the Omo river
in Ethiopia
. Once completed it would be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa with a power output of about 1870 Megawatt (MW), thus more than doubling total installed capacity in Ethiopia from its 2007 level of 814 MW. The Gibe III dam would be part of the Gibe cascade, a series of dams including the existing Gibe I
and Gibe II
dams as well as the planned Gibe IV (1472MW) and Gibe V (560MW) dams. The existing dams are owned and operated by the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, which is also the client for the Gibe III Hydroelectric dam.
As of February 2011, according to the project company the project was 41% completed and the completion of the dam was tentatively scheduled for July 2013. Full commissioning is scheduled for June 2013 after the reservoir will have filled and the hydroelectric plant will have been completed. Local and international environmental groups expect major negative environmental and social impacts of the dam and have criticized the project's environmental and social impact assessment as insufficient. Because of this and accusations that the entire approval process for the project was suspect, funding for the full construction cost has not yet been secured, as the African Development Bank
has delayed a decision about a loan pending a review of the dam's environmental impact by its compliance review and mediation unit which in August 2009 accepted a call from NGOs for such a review.
In August 2010 Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
vowed to complete the dam "at any cost", saying about critics of the dam that "They don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their tourists as a museum."
dam. It will withhold a reservoir
with a capacity of 14 km³ (3.4 cu mi) and surface area of 210 square kilometre, collecting with a catchment area of 34150 square kilometre. The reservoir's live (active or "useful") storage will be 11.75 km³ (2.8 cu mi) and dead storage 2.95 km³ (0.707742637882646 cu mi). The normal operating level of the reservoir will be 892 m (2,926.5 ft) above sea level with a maximum of 893 m (2,929.8 ft) and minimum of 800 m (2,624.7 ft). The dam's spillway
with be 108 m (354.3 ft) long and floodgate
-controlled with having a maximum discharge capacity of 18000 m3/s. Water above 873 m (2,864.2 ft) above sea level can be discharged through its gates. Feeding the dam's power house will be two penstock
s that each branch into five separate tunnels for each individual turbine. The power house will contain 10 x 187 MW generator
s supported by Francis turbine
s for a total installed capacity of 1,870 MW.
The initial design of the dam foresaw a rock-fill dam. However, due to difficulties with obtaining proper and sufficient insurance coverage for the rock-fill dam, the design has been changed to roller-compacted concrete. The rock-fill design has been criticized by an independent feasibility study submitted to the African Development Bank in 2009. In particular, the study questioned the structural stability of the dam, saying that the risk of a catastrophic failure was "not insignificant".
. It is expected to supply about half of its power to Ethiopia and export the other half to Kenya
(500 MW), Sudan
(200 MW) and Djibouti
(200 MW). However, no Power Purchase Agreement
s have been signed yet between Ethiopia and any of these countries. Only Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding to purchase electricity from the dam. Financing for a transmission line to Kenya still remains to be identified.
Access to the electricity grid in Ethiopia currently is very low. Less than 2% of Ethiopia's rural population, which accounts for 85% of the total population, have access to the grid. With the support of the World Bank
the government is carrying out an ambitious project to expand rural electricity access. In 2003, low generation capacity combined with a severe drought caused power cuts lasting 15 hours twice a week for a period of six months, costing an estimated $200 million in economic output. In 2008 and 2009, Ethiopia again experienced power cuts and brownout
s. According to the International Rivers Network the power cuts were caused by drought, since almost all electricity generation in Ethiopia is hydroelectric.
According to the same source, despite an increase in access to the electric grid, electricity consumption is likely to remain low for the foreseeable future due to the prevailing level of poverty. Even without the Gibe III hydro plant, according to one source Ethiopia had a surplus installed capacity of 400 megawatts. Under Ethiopia’s current development plans it is said that the country will be more than 95% dependent on hydroelectric power. Ethiopia also predicted that the electricity power exports can bring about $407 million dollars a year for the country and this amount is well above the country’s most valuable coffee export.
A secondary benefit of the project will be flood protection. In 2006, a flood claimed the lives of at least 360 people and thousands of livestock in the lower Omo River basin. Allegedly, a further benefit would be a reduction in the impact of droughts, although it remains unclear how the dam would mitigate the impact of drought on the local population in the absence of any concrete plans for irrigation or drinking water supply.
In June 2011 UNESCO
's World Heritage Committee
, in its 35th session held in Paris, France, called for the construction of the dam to be halted, to submit all assessments of the dam and requested Ethiopia and Kenya to invite a World Heritage Centre/IUCN monitoring mission to review the dam's impact on Lake Turkana, a World Heritage Site
.
According to critics, the dam will be potentially devastating to the indigenous population. The dam will stop the seasonal flood, which will impact the lower reach of the Omo River and Lake Turkana as well as the people who rely on these ecosystems for their livelihoods. According to Terri Hathaway, director of International Rivers
' Africa programme, Gibe III is "the most destructive dam under construction in Africa." The project would condemn "half a million of the region's most vulnerable people to hunger and conflict."
Impact on the lower Omo River. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people rely on the Omo River below the dam for some form of subsistence such as flood recession agriculture, and many of these ethnic groups live in chronic hunger. Critics state that the Gibe III dam may worsen their situation. Indigenous people rely on recessional cultivation of food along the riverbanks, as well as livestock herding, for survival. The Gibe III dam and the associated decrease in water levels and seasonality of flows in the Omo River threaten the continuation of the only two options for survival in this arid environment—there are no alternatives. The people living in the project area are part of the Southern Nations of Ethiopia
, a highly diverse group of people. Ethnic groups affected by the dam include eight distinct indigenous communities: the Mursi
, Bodi (Mekan
), Muguji (Kwegu), Kara (Karo), Hamer, Bashada, Nyangatom
and Daasanach.International Rivers Network:Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 Dam: Sowing Hunger and Conflict, May 2009, accessed on October 17, 2009
Stephen Corry
, Director of the indigenous rights organization Survival International
said, "The Gibe III dam will be a disaster of cataclysmic proportions for the tribes of the Omo valley. Their land and livelihoods will be destroyed, yet few have any idea what lies ahead. The government has violated Ethiopia’s constitution and international law in the procurement process. No respectable outside body should be funding this atrocious project." Other sources note that, when interviewed, people in many villages have never even heard of the Gibe III dam, and many of them did not even know what a dam was. This is an indication of the failure of consultations and informed consent for the indigenous populations. Survival, together with the Campaign for the Reform of the World Bank, Counter Balance coalition, Friends of Lake Turkana and International Rivers have launched a petition to stop the dam.
Dam proponents argue that artificial floods are planned to be released from the reservoir and that irrigation projects are envisaged to improve the livelihoods of the downstream population.
Impact on the Ecosystems of the Omo River. The decreased water flow of the Omo River resulting from the Gibe III dam will have significant impacts on the ecosystems surrounding the river. The Omo River Basin is home to the only pristine riparian forest remaining in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. The survival of this forest is dependent upon the seasonal flooding of the Omo River, which will cease with construction of the dam. This may cause 290 km2 of forest to “dry out” from lack of water. The decreased water flow will also negatively impact, if not eliminate, all economic activities associated with the Omo River such as farming, fishing, and tourism. The water level of the Omo River is crucial for recharging groundwater supplies in the Omo basin. If the water level of the river drops once the Gibe III dam is built, then it will no longer be able to refill underground water supplies, leaving much of the basin bereft of groundwater, which negatively impacts people and ecosystems. As the water level of the Omo River drops, the erosion of its riverbanks will increase, causing increased sediment flows in the river, loss of soil for crop cultivation along the riverbanks, and loss of riparian habitats.
Impact on Lake Turkana. According to Friends of Lake Turkana, a Kenyan organization representing indigenous groups in northwestern Kenya whose livelihoods are linked to Lake Turkana, the dam could reduce the level of Lake Turkana
by up to 10 meter affecting up to 300,000 people, This could cause the brackish water to increase in salinity to where it may no longer be drinkable by the indigenous groups around the lake. Currently, the salinity of the water is about 2332 mg/L, and it is estimated that a 10 meter decrease in the water level of Lake Turkana could cause the salinity to rise to 3397 mg/L. Raising salinity could also drastically reduce the number of fish in the lake, which the people around Lake Turkana depend on for sustenance and their livelihoods. According to critics, this "will condemn the lake to a not-so-slow death."
According to dam proponents, the impact on Lake Turkana will be limited to the temporary reduction in flows during the filling of the reservoir. Various sources state that the filling could take between one and three wet seasons. The total storage volume of the reservoir of Gibe III dam will be between 11.75 and 14 billion cubic meter, depending on sources. According to the firm that builds the dam this would reduce the water level in the lake by "less than 50 cm per year for three years" and that salinity "will not change in any way". Based on a surface area of Lake Turkana of 6,405 km2 the filling of the reservoir would indeed reduce the level of the lake by less than 2 meters. The environmental and social impacts of such a decline are difficult to predict. For purposes of comparison, according to data in the World Lake Database, the historic level of Lake Turkana fluctuated significantly over the last 125 years. It declined from a high of 20m above today's level in the 1890s to the same level as today in the 1940s and 1950s. Then it increased again gradually by 7 meters to reach a peak around 1980, and subsequently decreased again.
The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) summary of the project did not assess the impact of the dam on the water level and water quality of Lake Turkana. The director of Kenya's Water Services Regulatory Board, John Nyaoro, argued that the dam would have no negative impact on Lake Turkana.
Other impacts It was predicted that there is about 50-75% leakage of waters from the reservoir due to multiple fractures in the basalts at the planned reservoir site. Due to the loss of the waters in reservoir, the dam would not be able to produce as much electricity and less hydro power would be available to export to other nearby countries. Also, the dam and reservoir are vulnerable to seismic activity such as earthquakes and massive landslides in the Gibe III project region. The earthquakes can cause even larger fractures to the dam and are susceptible to more water leakage as well as decreasing the economic inputs. Moreover, the landslides would fill up the reservoir and less water capacity can be stored. This would also mean that less hydro power can be produced.
Official environmental impact assessment. An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has been carried out by Centro Elletrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano (CESI) and AGRICONSULTING of Italy, in association with MDI Consulting Engineers from Ethiopia. According to Anthony Mitchell, an engineer who submitted an independent feasibility study of the dam to the African Development Bank, CESI's owners include vendors who stand to benefit from the project and this conflict of interest is not disclosed in the impact statement. As part of the assessment, according to the Project Company, public consultations were carried out with "officials and institutions, people affected by the project and non-governmental organizations". According to critics, these consultations have been minimal. Most importantly, the assessment was only completed in July 2008, nearly two years after construction began, in violation of Ethiopian law and in contrast to global good practice of environmental assessments. Also, an independent environmental advisory panel has been established only as late as July 2009, apparently in a belated effort to appease criticism of the project.
Alternative environmental impact statement. The Africa Resources Working Group (ARWG), a collaborative of eight consultants from around the world, conducted an independent environmental impact statement of their own for the Gibe III dam. The alternative impact statement was performed because of the alleged corruption and inaccuracy of the official impact assessment. The ARWG criticizes many of the statements made in the official Gibe III EIA. Regarding the flow of water into Lake Turkana, they state that the Gibe III dam will result in a 57-60% decrease of river flow volume. The ARWG also notes that it is not necessarily the volume of water that is important to the Omo River and Turkana ecosystems, but that the seasonality and timing of the water flow is crucial, because certain biota are adapted to feeding, reproducing, growing, etc. in response to seasonal changes in water flow. Artificially releasing water from the Gibe III dam into the Omo River will not be sufficient to meet the needs of these biota. Additionally, the ARWG states that there is “no precedent of successful and sustained implementation” of an artificial flood simulation program in sub-Saharan Africa, so it is not guaranteed that such a program will be maintained at the Gibe III dam.
One prominent critic of the dam is the Kenyan paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey
who said that "the project is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions".
Controversy arose as the environmental impact assessment and preceding environmental impact study (EIS) were not done until two years after beginning construction on the dam. The Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority requires that an environmental impact assessment be done for any project “likely to entail significant adverse environmental impacts” and that “the EIS must submitted before commencing any construction or any other implementation of the project.” Additionally, direct negotiation with Salini Construttori rather than allowing bidding on the contract from other qualified companies violated international banking rules, making it difficult for the Ethiopian government to get a loan. The bypassing of the standard process was defended by general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, Mihert Debeba, as skipping a set of "luxurious preconditions" that Ethiopia could not meet, one which would completely halt any development of hydroelectric power.
According to the official website of Gibe III, most of the construction cost of the dam itself is financed by the Ethiopian government with its own funds. However, part of the project is financed through a corporate bond called "Millennium Bond" issued by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO) and marketed with the Ethiopian diaspora. The Ethiopian government also had requested financing of US$250 million from the Italian government for civil works.
In May 2010 EEPCo and Dongfang Electric Machinery Corporation, a Chinese state-owned company, signed a memorandum of understanding to provide electrical and mechanical equipment for the project. The agreement is reportedly backed by a financing offer from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
to provide a US$500 million loan. Previously the European Investment Bank
(EIB) had been considering financing of the dam's electrical and mechanical equipment with a loan of US$341 million. It has financed economic, financial and technical studies for the dam. In July 2010 the EIB stopped financing environmental and social studies for the dam, stating that "alternative financing" had been found. The African Development Bank
had also been considering a US$250 million loan for the electro-mechanical equipment of the plant. The World Bank
also had considered funding the project. In 2008 the World Bank decided not to pursue a full feasibility study for the dam, because of the absence of competitive bidding for the prime contractor.
The Exim Bank of China finances the transmission line to the Addis Ababa. The contract has been awarded to the Chinese Company Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co., Ltd. (TBEA) on July 24, 2009.
on 15 July 2009. Both dams are "expected to be completed in five years", and would have a combined capacity of over 2,000 megawatts.
Roller-compacted concrete
Roller-compacted concrete or rolled concrete is a special blend of concrete that has essentially the same ingredients as conventional concrete but in different ratios, and increasingly with partial substitution of fly ash for Portland cement. RCC is a mix of cement/fly ash, water, sand, aggregate...
dam with an associated hydroelectric power plant on the Omo river
Omo River
The Omo River is an important river of southern Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya...
in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. Once completed it would be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa with a power output of about 1870 Megawatt (MW), thus more than doubling total installed capacity in Ethiopia from its 2007 level of 814 MW. The Gibe III dam would be part of the Gibe cascade, a series of dams including the existing Gibe I
Gilgel Gibe I Power Station
The Gilgel Gibe I Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant of the Omo River in Ethiopia. It has a power generating capacity of 184 MW, enough to power over 123,200 homes....
and Gibe II
Gilgel Gibe II Power Station
The Gilgel Gibe II Power Station is a hydroelectric power station on the Omo River in Ethiopia. The power station receives water from a tunnel entrance on the Gilgel Gibe River. It has an installed capacity of 420 MW and was inaugurated on January 14, 2010...
dams as well as the planned Gibe IV (1472MW) and Gibe V (560MW) dams. The existing dams are owned and operated by the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, which is also the client for the Gibe III Hydroelectric dam.
As of February 2011, according to the project company the project was 41% completed and the completion of the dam was tentatively scheduled for July 2013. Full commissioning is scheduled for June 2013 after the reservoir will have filled and the hydroelectric plant will have been completed. Local and international environmental groups expect major negative environmental and social impacts of the dam and have criticized the project's environmental and social impact assessment as insufficient. Because of this and accusations that the entire approval process for the project was suspect, funding for the full construction cost has not yet been secured, as the African Development Bank
African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in Africa...
has delayed a decision about a loan pending a review of the dam's environmental impact by its compliance review and mediation unit which in August 2009 accepted a call from NGOs for such a review.
In August 2010 Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...
vowed to complete the dam "at any cost", saying about critics of the dam that "They don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their tourists as a museum."
Design
The Gilgel Gibe III Dam will be a 610 m (2,001.3 ft) long and 243 m (797.2 ft) high roller-compacted concreteRoller-compacted concrete
Roller-compacted concrete or rolled concrete is a special blend of concrete that has essentially the same ingredients as conventional concrete but in different ratios, and increasingly with partial substitution of fly ash for Portland cement. RCC is a mix of cement/fly ash, water, sand, aggregate...
dam. It will withhold a reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
with a capacity of 14 km³ (3.4 cu mi) and surface area of 210 square kilometre, collecting with a catchment area of 34150 square kilometre. The reservoir's live (active or "useful") storage will be 11.75 km³ (2.8 cu mi) and dead storage 2.95 km³ (0.707742637882646 cu mi). The normal operating level of the reservoir will be 892 m (2,926.5 ft) above sea level with a maximum of 893 m (2,929.8 ft) and minimum of 800 m (2,624.7 ft). The dam's spillway
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...
with be 108 m (354.3 ft) long and floodgate
Floodgate
Floodgates are adjustable gates used to control water flow in flood barriers, reservoir, river, stream, or levee systems. They may be designed to set spillway crest heights in dams, to adjust flow rates in sluices and canals, or they may be designed to stop water flow entirely as part of a levee or...
-controlled with having a maximum discharge capacity of 18000 m3/s. Water above 873 m (2,864.2 ft) above sea level can be discharged through its gates. Feeding the dam's power house will be two penstock
Penstock
A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydraulic turbines and sewerage systems. It is a term that has been inherited from the technology of wooden watermills....
s that each branch into five separate tunnels for each individual turbine. The power house will contain 10 x 187 MW generator
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
s supported by Francis turbine
Francis turbine
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts....
s for a total installed capacity of 1,870 MW.
The initial design of the dam foresaw a rock-fill dam. However, due to difficulties with obtaining proper and sufficient insurance coverage for the rock-fill dam, the design has been changed to roller-compacted concrete. The rock-fill design has been criticized by an independent feasibility study submitted to the African Development Bank in 2009. In particular, the study questioned the structural stability of the dam, saying that the risk of a catastrophic failure was "not insignificant".
Benefits
The main benefit of the dam will be electricity generationEnergy in Ethiopia
Energy in Ethiopia is an industry lacking in natural resources, though it has plenty of potential.-Hydropower:Hydropower accounts for the bulk of Ethiopia's electric power generating capacity and output. In 2002, the country's generating capacity stood at 501 MW, with hydropower accounting for...
. It is expected to supply about half of its power to Ethiopia and export the other half to Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
(500 MW), Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
(200 MW) and Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
(200 MW). However, no Power Purchase Agreement
Power Purchase Agreement
Power Purchase Agreements are contracts between two parties, one who generates electricity for the purpose of sale and one who is looking to purchase electricity . There are various forms of Power Purchase Agreements; these are differentiated by the source of energy harnessed...
s have been signed yet between Ethiopia and any of these countries. Only Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding to purchase electricity from the dam. Financing for a transmission line to Kenya still remains to be identified.
Access to the electricity grid in Ethiopia currently is very low. Less than 2% of Ethiopia's rural population, which accounts for 85% of the total population, have access to the grid. With the support of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
the government is carrying out an ambitious project to expand rural electricity access. In 2003, low generation capacity combined with a severe drought caused power cuts lasting 15 hours twice a week for a period of six months, costing an estimated $200 million in economic output. In 2008 and 2009, Ethiopia again experienced power cuts and brownout
Brownout (electricity)
A brownout is an intentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system used for load reduction in an emergency. The reduction lasts for minutes or hours, as opposed to short-term voltage sag or dip. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags...
s. According to the International Rivers Network the power cuts were caused by drought, since almost all electricity generation in Ethiopia is hydroelectric.
According to the same source, despite an increase in access to the electric grid, electricity consumption is likely to remain low for the foreseeable future due to the prevailing level of poverty. Even without the Gibe III hydro plant, according to one source Ethiopia had a surplus installed capacity of 400 megawatts. Under Ethiopia’s current development plans it is said that the country will be more than 95% dependent on hydroelectric power. Ethiopia also predicted that the electricity power exports can bring about $407 million dollars a year for the country and this amount is well above the country’s most valuable coffee export.
A secondary benefit of the project will be flood protection. In 2006, a flood claimed the lives of at least 360 people and thousands of livestock in the lower Omo River basin. Allegedly, a further benefit would be a reduction in the impact of droughts, although it remains unclear how the dam would mitigate the impact of drought on the local population in the absence of any concrete plans for irrigation or drinking water supply.
Controversy
Problems arose around financial difficulties, lack of transparency, and the environmental and social impact assessment, which was not published until two years after construction began. The assessment suggested that the project would cause minimal problems environmentally and socially, however there are a large number of critics who consider it to be flawed both in terms of thoroughness and objectivity. Among these critics is the African Resources Working Group who released statements saying that "The quantitative [and qualitative] data included in virtually all major sections of the report were clearly selected for their consistence with the predetermined objective of validating the completion of the Gibe III hydro-dam" and that despite claims made by the government to the contrary, the dam would "produce a broad range of negative effects, some of which would be catastrophic."In June 2011 UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's World Heritage Committee
World Heritage Committee
The World Heritage Committee establishes the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties...
, in its 35th session held in Paris, France, called for the construction of the dam to be halted, to submit all assessments of the dam and requested Ethiopia and Kenya to invite a World Heritage Centre/IUCN monitoring mission to review the dam's impact on Lake Turkana, a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
.
Environmental and social impact
According to the Ethiopian authorities, once the dam has been built the total amount of water flowing into the lake will not change. The only difference would be a more stable flow over the year - more during the dry season, and less during the wet. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in a BBC interview: "The overall environmental impact of the project is highly beneficial. It increases the amount of water in the river system, it completely regulates flooding which was a major problem, it improves the livelihood of people downstream because they will have irrigation projects, and it does not in any way negatively affect the Turkana Lake. This is what our studies show."According to critics, the dam will be potentially devastating to the indigenous population. The dam will stop the seasonal flood, which will impact the lower reach of the Omo River and Lake Turkana as well as the people who rely on these ecosystems for their livelihoods. According to Terri Hathaway, director of International Rivers
International Rivers
International Rivers is a non-profit, non-governmental, environmental and human rights organization based in Berkeley, California, United States...
' Africa programme, Gibe III is "the most destructive dam under construction in Africa." The project would condemn "half a million of the region's most vulnerable people to hunger and conflict."
Impact on the lower Omo River. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people rely on the Omo River below the dam for some form of subsistence such as flood recession agriculture, and many of these ethnic groups live in chronic hunger. Critics state that the Gibe III dam may worsen their situation. Indigenous people rely on recessional cultivation of food along the riverbanks, as well as livestock herding, for survival. The Gibe III dam and the associated decrease in water levels and seasonality of flows in the Omo River threaten the continuation of the only two options for survival in this arid environment—there are no alternatives. The people living in the project area are part of the Southern Nations of Ethiopia
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It was formed from the merger of the former Regions 7-11 following the 1994 elections...
, a highly diverse group of people. Ethnic groups affected by the dam include eight distinct indigenous communities: the Mursi
Mursi
The Mursi are a Nilotic pastoralist ethnic group that inhabits southwestern Ethiopia. They principally reside in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, close to the border with South Sudan...
, Bodi (Mekan
Mekan
The Mekan or Me'en are a Nilotic ethnic minority group inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia. The 1998 census lists them as consisting of 56,585 individuals....
), Muguji (Kwegu), Kara (Karo), Hamer, Bashada, Nyangatom
Nyangatom
The Nyangatom are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia and southeastern South Sudan...
and Daasanach.International Rivers Network:Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 Dam: Sowing Hunger and Conflict, May 2009, accessed on October 17, 2009
Stephen Corry
Stephen Corry
Stephen Corry is a British anthropologist and indigenous rights activist, better known as the Director of the non-governmental organisation Survival International. He has also been the chairman of the Free Tibet Campaign since 1993.- Biography :...
, Director of the indigenous rights organization Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
said, "The Gibe III dam will be a disaster of cataclysmic proportions for the tribes of the Omo valley. Their land and livelihoods will be destroyed, yet few have any idea what lies ahead. The government has violated Ethiopia’s constitution and international law in the procurement process. No respectable outside body should be funding this atrocious project." Other sources note that, when interviewed, people in many villages have never even heard of the Gibe III dam, and many of them did not even know what a dam was. This is an indication of the failure of consultations and informed consent for the indigenous populations. Survival, together with the Campaign for the Reform of the World Bank, Counter Balance coalition, Friends of Lake Turkana and International Rivers have launched a petition to stop the dam.
Dam proponents argue that artificial floods are planned to be released from the reservoir and that irrigation projects are envisaged to improve the livelihoods of the downstream population.
Impact on the Ecosystems of the Omo River. The decreased water flow of the Omo River resulting from the Gibe III dam will have significant impacts on the ecosystems surrounding the river. The Omo River Basin is home to the only pristine riparian forest remaining in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. The survival of this forest is dependent upon the seasonal flooding of the Omo River, which will cease with construction of the dam. This may cause 290 km2 of forest to “dry out” from lack of water. The decreased water flow will also negatively impact, if not eliminate, all economic activities associated with the Omo River such as farming, fishing, and tourism. The water level of the Omo River is crucial for recharging groundwater supplies in the Omo basin. If the water level of the river drops once the Gibe III dam is built, then it will no longer be able to refill underground water supplies, leaving much of the basin bereft of groundwater, which negatively impacts people and ecosystems. As the water level of the Omo River drops, the erosion of its riverbanks will increase, causing increased sediment flows in the river, loss of soil for crop cultivation along the riverbanks, and loss of riparian habitats.
Impact on Lake Turkana. According to Friends of Lake Turkana, a Kenyan organization representing indigenous groups in northwestern Kenya whose livelihoods are linked to Lake Turkana, the dam could reduce the level of Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana , formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake...
by up to 10 meter affecting up to 300,000 people, This could cause the brackish water to increase in salinity to where it may no longer be drinkable by the indigenous groups around the lake. Currently, the salinity of the water is about 2332 mg/L, and it is estimated that a 10 meter decrease in the water level of Lake Turkana could cause the salinity to rise to 3397 mg/L. Raising salinity could also drastically reduce the number of fish in the lake, which the people around Lake Turkana depend on for sustenance and their livelihoods. According to critics, this "will condemn the lake to a not-so-slow death."
According to dam proponents, the impact on Lake Turkana will be limited to the temporary reduction in flows during the filling of the reservoir. Various sources state that the filling could take between one and three wet seasons. The total storage volume of the reservoir of Gibe III dam will be between 11.75 and 14 billion cubic meter, depending on sources. According to the firm that builds the dam this would reduce the water level in the lake by "less than 50 cm per year for three years" and that salinity "will not change in any way". Based on a surface area of Lake Turkana of 6,405 km2 the filling of the reservoir would indeed reduce the level of the lake by less than 2 meters. The environmental and social impacts of such a decline are difficult to predict. For purposes of comparison, according to data in the World Lake Database, the historic level of Lake Turkana fluctuated significantly over the last 125 years. It declined from a high of 20m above today's level in the 1890s to the same level as today in the 1940s and 1950s. Then it increased again gradually by 7 meters to reach a peak around 1980, and subsequently decreased again.
The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) summary of the project did not assess the impact of the dam on the water level and water quality of Lake Turkana. The director of Kenya's Water Services Regulatory Board, John Nyaoro, argued that the dam would have no negative impact on Lake Turkana.
Other impacts It was predicted that there is about 50-75% leakage of waters from the reservoir due to multiple fractures in the basalts at the planned reservoir site. Due to the loss of the waters in reservoir, the dam would not be able to produce as much electricity and less hydro power would be available to export to other nearby countries. Also, the dam and reservoir are vulnerable to seismic activity such as earthquakes and massive landslides in the Gibe III project region. The earthquakes can cause even larger fractures to the dam and are susceptible to more water leakage as well as decreasing the economic inputs. Moreover, the landslides would fill up the reservoir and less water capacity can be stored. This would also mean that less hydro power can be produced.
Official environmental impact assessment. An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has been carried out by Centro Elletrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano (CESI) and AGRICONSULTING of Italy, in association with MDI Consulting Engineers from Ethiopia. According to Anthony Mitchell, an engineer who submitted an independent feasibility study of the dam to the African Development Bank, CESI's owners include vendors who stand to benefit from the project and this conflict of interest is not disclosed in the impact statement. As part of the assessment, according to the Project Company, public consultations were carried out with "officials and institutions, people affected by the project and non-governmental organizations". According to critics, these consultations have been minimal. Most importantly, the assessment was only completed in July 2008, nearly two years after construction began, in violation of Ethiopian law and in contrast to global good practice of environmental assessments. Also, an independent environmental advisory panel has been established only as late as July 2009, apparently in a belated effort to appease criticism of the project.
Alternative environmental impact statement. The Africa Resources Working Group (ARWG), a collaborative of eight consultants from around the world, conducted an independent environmental impact statement of their own for the Gibe III dam. The alternative impact statement was performed because of the alleged corruption and inaccuracy of the official impact assessment. The ARWG criticizes many of the statements made in the official Gibe III EIA. Regarding the flow of water into Lake Turkana, they state that the Gibe III dam will result in a 57-60% decrease of river flow volume. The ARWG also notes that it is not necessarily the volume of water that is important to the Omo River and Turkana ecosystems, but that the seasonality and timing of the water flow is crucial, because certain biota are adapted to feeding, reproducing, growing, etc. in response to seasonal changes in water flow. Artificially releasing water from the Gibe III dam into the Omo River will not be sufficient to meet the needs of these biota. Additionally, the ARWG states that there is “no precedent of successful and sustained implementation” of an artificial flood simulation program in sub-Saharan Africa, so it is not guaranteed that such a program will be maintained at the Gibe III dam.
One prominent critic of the dam is the Kenyan paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey is a politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey...
who said that "the project is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions".
Award of construction contract
The contract for the construction of the dam was awarded in 2006 to Salini Costruttori of Italy . The engineering design was awarded to Studio Pietrangeli and supervision of ELC-COB (ELC Electroconsult, Italy - Coyne et Bellier, France) as representative of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.Controversy arose as the environmental impact assessment and preceding environmental impact study (EIS) were not done until two years after beginning construction on the dam. The Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority requires that an environmental impact assessment be done for any project “likely to entail significant adverse environmental impacts” and that “the EIS must submitted before commencing any construction or any other implementation of the project.” Additionally, direct negotiation with Salini Construttori rather than allowing bidding on the contract from other qualified companies violated international banking rules, making it difficult for the Ethiopian government to get a loan. The bypassing of the standard process was defended by general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, Mihert Debeba, as skipping a set of "luxurious preconditions" that Ethiopia could not meet, one which would completely halt any development of hydroelectric power.
Costs and financing
The financial costs of the dam and hydroelectric power plant have been estimated to be Euro 1.55 billion. The cost of a transmission line from the power plant to the nearby Wolayta Sodo Substation has been estimated at 35 Million Euro. These costs do not include the costs of constructing or upgrading power transmission lines to Addis Abeba and onwards to Djibouti to the Northeast of the dam, to Sudan in the West and to Kenya in the South, all located at a distance between 500 and a 1000 km from the dam. The cost estimate does not include the costs of extending the electricity distribution network to effectively increase access to electricity, which currently is low to very low in all four prospective beneficiary countries.According to the official website of Gibe III, most of the construction cost of the dam itself is financed by the Ethiopian government with its own funds. However, part of the project is financed through a corporate bond called "Millennium Bond" issued by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO) and marketed with the Ethiopian diaspora. The Ethiopian government also had requested financing of US$250 million from the Italian government for civil works.
In May 2010 EEPCo and Dongfang Electric Machinery Corporation, a Chinese state-owned company, signed a memorandum of understanding to provide electrical and mechanical equipment for the project. The agreement is reportedly backed by a financing offer from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. is the largest bank in the world by profit and market capitalization. It is one China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks .It was founded as a limited company on January 1, 1984...
to provide a US$500 million loan. Previously the European Investment Bank
European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...
(EIB) had been considering financing of the dam's electrical and mechanical equipment with a loan of US$341 million. It has financed economic, financial and technical studies for the dam. In July 2010 the EIB stopped financing environmental and social studies for the dam, stating that "alternative financing" had been found. The African Development Bank
African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in Africa...
had also been considering a US$250 million loan for the electro-mechanical equipment of the plant. The World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
also had considered funding the project. In 2008 the World Bank decided not to pursue a full feasibility study for the dam, because of the absence of competitive bidding for the prime contractor.
The Exim Bank of China finances the transmission line to the Addis Ababa. The contract has been awarded to the Chinese Company Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co., Ltd. (TBEA) on July 24, 2009.
Gilgel Gibe IV dam
A $1.9 billion deal between China’s Sino Hydro Corporation and the Ethiopian Electric Power Authority to construct the Gibe IV and Halele Werabesa hydroelectric dams was reported by The Shanghai DailyShanghai Daily
Shanghai Daily is an English-language newspaper in China started in October 1999 and owned by Wenhui-xinmin United Press Group. Its primary audience is visiting foreigners, mainly overseas investors and tourists to Shanghai, though many Chinese students read it to improve their English...
on 15 July 2009. Both dams are "expected to be completed in five years", and would have a combined capacity of over 2,000 megawatts.