Ethiopia could be headed for another round of confrontation with environmentalists following the announcement of plans to construct another hydropower plant on the contested Omo river.
The Horn of Africa nation managed to silence conservationists opposed to the Gilgel Gibe III project, which started generating electricity in October last year, but the envisaged Koysha hydropower scheme, which will gene- rate 2 000 MW, will most certainly attract fresh opposition.
The project, which is part of the Gibe cascade on the Omo river and will be built at a cost of $1.7-billion, is being financed by Italian export credit agency Servizi Assicuative del Commerce Estero.
Ethiopia has awarded the contract to implement the project to Italian company Salini Costruttori, which is also constructing the 5 250 MW Grand Renaissance dam and the 1 800 MW Gilgel Gibe III plant.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn says the new hydropower project is part of the country’s quest to dominate power exports in the wider East Africa region.
“It is our desire to tap several rivers for power generation as part of plans to boost manufacturing and industrialisation and transform our agrarian economy,” he says.
He adds that, under its 2015–2020 development plan, Ethiopia aims to increase power generation capacity to 17 000 MW from the current installed capacity of 2 200 by investing in hydropower, wind and geothermal projects.
Environmentalists are opposed to hydropower plants being built on the Omo river, which is the source of livelihood for thousands of people in Ethiopia and Kenya, where it drains into Lake Turkana. They aver that the dam would significantly reduce water levels downstream, posing a threat to Lake Turkana and endangering the lives about 500 000 people, which could ignite conflict among communities. Lake Turkana, in north-western Kenya, receives 90% of its water from the Omo river.
Despite stiff opposition, Ethiopia has been steadfast in its plans to invest a staggering $12-billion to tap the rivers that cascade down its craggy highlands to produce electricity in an effort to beat perennial energy shortages and become Africa’s biggest power exporter.
Recently, the country revealed that it had raked in $123-million during the first eight months of the 2015/16 financial year from energy sales in the domestic market and in foreign markets like Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya. It has also signed power export agreements with Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Yemen.
The country estimates that power exports could generate $407-million a year, much more than what it earns from exports of coffee, the country’s major foreign currency earner.