Members of the Karo tribe at the Omo river, on which the Gibe III dam is being built. Photo retrieved from: www.guardian.co.uk
“There is particular concern over the Gibe III dam being built on the Omo river, the largest infrastructure project in Ethiopian history. Campaigners say it threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in the South Omo region and around Lake Turkana in Kenya. The Lower Omo Valley, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is home to agro-pastoralists from eight distinct indigenous groups who depend on the Omo river’s annual flood to support riverbank cultivation and grazing lands for livestock.
Launching a new five-year development plan in August last year, the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, vowed to complete the dam “at any cost” and lashed out at Survival International and other critics, saying, “They don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their tourists as a museum … These people talk about the hazard of building dams after they have already completed building dams in their country.”
However, Peter Bosshard, policy director for International Rivers, one of the groups involved in the campaign against Gibe III(pdf), says that international groups had to speak out because local campaigners had effectively been silenced. He said members of affected communities were not consulted; anybody even suspected of opposing the dam risks suffering serious consequences.
“Accountable governments and public participation in decision-making are key elements of social and economic development,” said Bosshard. “The Ethiopian government makes a mockery of these concepts. In the Gibe III dam, the biggest infrastructure project in Ethiopia’s history, any participation by the affected people has been suppressed, and any dissenters risk arrest or worse.”
Read more: Guardian
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