NGOs and communities say a transmission line to Kenya amounts to funding the disastrous impacts of Africa’s largest dam.
International Rivers, Friends of Lake Turkana, BIC, and others have issued an open letter to World Bank President Robert Zoellick about the Bank’s indirect support for the 1800MW Gibe III dam. The dam, currently under construction in Ethiopia, has the potential to disrupt the lives, livelihoods and cultures of 500,000 indigenous peoples and its construction has been decried by the UN’s World Heritage Committee and other groups.
Though the World Bank declined to finance the Gibe III Dam itself, there is concern that they are supporting it indirectly by constructing a transmission line that would source its power from the dam. International Rivers’ Peter Bosshard explains, “Transmission lines and power projects depend on each other. If transmission lines become a focus of the World Bank’s development aid for Africa, the institution needs to clarify where the electricity for these projects will come from.”
An excerpt from the open letter states, “World Bank statements and project documents suggest that the electricity to be exported through the [transmission line project] will indeed be provided by the Gibe III Dam. We appreciate that the World Bank declined to fund the Gibe III Dam because of the severe impacts on indigenous communities and the environment downstream. We believe that the Bank should not fund a transmission line that would source its power from the Gibe III Dam or from any other project that massively violates its safeguard policies.”
The projected board approval date for the transmission line was previously set for July 10, but has been removed from the board calendar and not yet rescheduled. The World Bank intends to provide $684 million for the project, while the African Development Bank (AfDB) is expected to contribute an additional $354 million.
Open Letter: Concerns regarding the Regional Eastern Africa Power Pool ProgramOfficial Project page (World Bank website)
World Bank to Fund Gibe III Dam through the Backdoor? (International Rivers)