Ethiopia's rush to build mega dams sparks protests

[n2doc]

Xan Rice
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 March 2010 17.11 GMT



Construction begins on the huge Gibe III hdyro-electric dam at the Omo river site in southern Ethiopia. Photograph: Xan Rice

At the foot of a towering gorge slicing through southern Ethiopia the Omo river suddenly disappears into a tunnel bored into the rockface. Excavators claw at the soil and stone in the exposed riverbed beyond, where a giant concrete wall will soon appear in the ravine.

At 243 metres the Gibe III dam will be the highest on the continent, a controversial centrepiece of Ethiopia's extraordinary multibillion-pound hydroelectric boom.

The country that prides itself as "The Water Tower of Africa" plans to end an energy shortage by building a network of mega dams on the web of rivers that tumble down from its highlands.

By 2020, with the help of Italian and Chinese construction firms, Ethiopia will, it hopes, have increased its power generation capacity 15-fold and become a significant exporter of electricity to the region.

"For a developing country like ours the dams are a must," said Abdulhakim Mohammed, head of generation construction at the Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation (Eepco). "Power is everything."

more:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/25/ethiopia-gibe-hydropower-dam