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The Government of Ethiopia is preparing to repeat it mistakes by reinvesting in it’s fallen and highly contested dams.
The dictatorial regime to justify its megalomaniac project started cutting light all over Ethiopia randomly without warning. This to put pressure on the population and to assure the election outcome to its ruling party. Those who are not a member of the party are in continual blackout.
Another 20 million Eros on the same fallen project of a collapsed dump tunnel is been invested while 20 millions are starving. Surely the Gibe II dam and the rest on the river Omo will bust again due to the continual shift and opening of the Ethiopian rift valley. This is starting from Afar depression and permanent volcanic eruption down to lake Turkana. A regime rather than feeding its people by developing alterative and nature friendly energy supplies, rather prefers in spending billions on a sinking sand dam projects. Unfortunately all the dictatorial regimes manifestoes the same characteristics and their love megalomaniac big projects on the back of their dying population.
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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The Woyane Government position on the fallen dams
Gibe II Glitch
A collapse in a tunnel has forced the closure of Ethiopia’s largest hydropower plant, Gilgel Gibe II, one week after it was inaugurated. Engineers have estimated that the repairs will take two months and cost 356 million birr. As a result, large factories have been asked to halve their power consumption.
A week after it was officially inaugurated, the largest hydropower station in Ethiopia’s history, Gilgel Gibe II (GG II) has suffered a collapse of a section of a tunnel. Minister of Mines and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu said that the plant halted operations on Sunday, January 24 after signs of a drop in pressure were observed. He said that the problem occurred some nine kilometers from the outlet of the tunnel and that 15 meters has collapsed.
Semegnew Bekele (Eng), GG II Project Manager, said the problem is easy to solve and could be fixed in a very short time. The reconstruction work is expected to cost a maximum of 18 million Euros, (365 million birr) and take two months, according to engineers’ estimates. Reinforcement work is also expected to be done to strengthen other sections of the tunnel. Engineers added that they think the costs of the repair work will be covered by the contractor, as it is liable for repair work for one year after completion of the project. The contractor for GG II was Italian firm, Salini Costruttori, which also constructed Gilgel Gibe I. Factories that consume large amounts of electric power have been ordered by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) to reduce their consumption by 50 percent as a result of the incident.
Following Tekeze Hydropower Plant’s launch, the opening of GG II was the second of three major hydropower projects that were expected to come online this fiscal year. GG II, which was constructed 250km south west of Addis Ababa for over 5.2 billion birr, can generate 420 megawatts of electricity from its four turbines. It was predicted that it was going to increase electric power supply by 38 percent. The Italian Government and the European Investment Bank paid for 52 percent of the total cost, while the Ethiopian Government covered the balance. GG II was supposed to solve the country’s power shortage and was also expected to export power to neighboring countries.
Mihiret Debebe, CEO of EEPCo, said that the corporation is doing its best to solve the power shortage and is going to rapidly complete Beles Hydropower Project, which is expected to generate 460 mw when it starts operation in the next couple of weeks. GG II, an extension of the Gilgel Gibe I (GG I) hydropower project, does not have a dam. Instead, it uses the water discharged by the GG I, channeled through a 26 km tunnel under Fofa mountain, to Omo River Valley where it takes advantage of a 1.2 km drop to generate 420 mw. Construction of GG II was launched in 2005.Also underway is the Gibe III hydropower project, which, when operational, will double the country’s power capacity by generating 1,870 mw. The project launched in March 2008 is expected to cost around 20 billion birr. The same Italian firm has so far completed about 35 percent of the civil works of the project at a slow pace due to financing problems.
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Sudan Tribune
Environment group calls to suspend funding of Ethiopia’s dam
(ADDIS ABABA) — An international environmental group urged the African Development Bank (AfDB) to reconsider their commitment to fund the ongoing construction of a dam in southwest Ethiopia saying it would affect the ecosystems and livelihoods in the region.
The Gibe III Dam, located 190 miles (300 km) southwest of Addis Ababa, on the Omo River, is Ethiopia’s largest investment project. The project costs $1.7 billion.
In order to diversify and develop its economy, the government of Ethiopia has initiated an aggressive plan to develop hydropower for export, long seen as one of the country’s few exploitable resources. Foreign aid covers 90% of Ethiopia’s national budget.
International Rivers urged the AfDB to not fund the construction of Gibe III saying it will reduce food security of up to half a million poor farmers, herders and fishers in southwest Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
“An oasis of biodiversity in a harsh desert, Lake Turkana supports 300,000 people and rich animal life. Hundreds of thousands of fishing families and pastoralists will be affected if the lake’s fragile ecosystem is stressed to the brink of collapse.”
“The project would spread war and famine in a region that is already affected by climate change,” further said International Rivers.
Next week from May 13-14 the AfDB directors will discuss during a meeting to be held in Dakar, Senegal, the funding of Gibe III which is under construction since 2006. The African bank agreed to contribute to finance the project but it has to determine how much it would pay.
European Investment Bank is considering financing Gibe III, up to € 250 million, while Italy is mulling financing Gibe III with up to € 250 million.
In complaints filled to the AfDB, Kenyan NGOs and International Rivers assert that the project violates five binding AfDB policies.
Construction of the Gibe 3 Project began in July 2006 with flagrant violations of Ethiopia’s laws on environmental protection and procurement, said the environment advocacy group.
It also alleged that the contract was awarded without competitive bidding to Italian construction giant Salini, raising serious questions about the project’s integrity.
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The nongovernmental group said the AfDB should suspend its plans to fund this project until a thorough review and consultations with all affected peoples have taken place.
“The AfDB should in the meantime help Ethiopia drought-proof its energy sector, diversify its energy mix, and tap its abundant renewable energy resources.”
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The northern Keyna have already started the climatic water wars which has embraced all of the Omotic reverian populations.In Ethiopia the sacristy of natural resources due to the drying river basins and lakes has ignited tribal wars aggravated by the damming of rivers.
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Kenya Should Stop Ethiopia From Building Dam
Date: Sat 23rd January 2010
Mars Group Kenya – Multimedia
Water is life. And for this truism, many lives have been lost. Amid the devastating effects of climate change, it seems the people who depend on Lake Turkana are about to lose their source of livelihood – not due to nature but greed and intransigence. Despite numerous valid protestations about the environmental, political, economic and social consequences of Ethiopia’s decision to build a dam, Gibe III, on River Omo, the country seems intent on going ahead with the project.Reports suggest the 240m high dam with a reservoir stretching 151km is at an advanced stage. At a time when there are constant conflicts over water resources, it is unimaginable that our leaders have been lame ducks in the face of Ethiopia’s continued threat to the existence of Lake Turkana. Reports indicate that Lake Turkana’s death is nigh if the project continues as the lake gets 80 per cent of its water from River Omo.
Death of a lakeNow, the fact that the river is the lifeline for people living around the lake is not new. And neither is the fact that without it, the people of Turkana and surrounding areas will be severely affected. This is serious given the number of conflicts over water resources. An environment impact report warns that “cutting off the main source of livelihood can only heighten the intense conflicts emanating from inadequate supply of resources for their mutual survival”.
This will be compounded by, the report further contends, “total destruction of the environment and elimination of forest, woodland and total mutilation of biodiversity and all riverine economic activities”. Given such serious assessment, it does not make sense for Ethiopia to continue building the dam. The tragedy is that Kenya seems to have endorsed the project ostensibly because it will import 500 mega watts of power from Ethiopia once the dam is working.
This thinking defeats logic because millions of Kenyans’ lives will be irreparably damaged. This realisation alone ought to tell the Government to take immediate steps to stop the construction of the dam. The Government has the obligation to protect the rights and interests of Kenya.
A regime caught in its lies
In Ethiopia damming is just a means to snatch cash on the pretext of national development . The years 2010 is a moment of truth that the dream has become an illusion and a game to robe money from international investors.
- Years ago the great lie read this article of 2007 non has come true
Ethiopia plans to provide all its citizens, 3 neighboring countries with electricity, says official
The Associated Press
Friday, February 9, 2007
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Ethiopia has an ambitious multibillion-dollar (-euro) plan to provide all its citizens with electricity within eight years, as well as to supply some power to three neighboring countries, a top manager of the state-owned electricity company said Friday.
Ethiopia can do this because it has a lot of potential to generate hydroelectric power, said Mihret Debebe, general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.
The country is the source of a branch of the Nile River called the Blue Nile, which is believed to have huge power-generating potential. The Blue Nile merges with the White Nile in Sudan to flow into Egypt as the Nile River.
By 2010, Ethiopia will generate more than 4,000 megawatts, enabling the country to provide 50 percent of its 77 million people with electricity, Mihret told The Associated Press.
At present only 20 percent of Ethiopians get electricity and the country generates about 800 megawatts of power, he said.
“The costs of meeting the target to provide electricity to the entire country will be more than 100 billion birr (US$11.7 billion; €9 billion),” Sendeku Araya, spokesman of the corporation told the AP. “The costs will be covered by the Ethiopian government and the (Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation), through foreign loans agreed upon by various international donors.”
He said that the government was in discussions with China, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, among other donors.
Sendeku said that he did not have figures on Ethiopia’s power generation potential or how much needs to be produced to supply the whole country.
Next year, experts are expected to complete their projections of what Ethiopia’s power generation potential is and exactly how much is needed to power up the entire country, said Sendeku.
Five new dams are being built and the country plans to expand existing geothermal, wind and gas-turbine power generation projects, Mihret said.
Ethiopia’s ambitions are not confined to its borders, he said.
“We already have plans in place to begin supplying power, hopefully, to Sudan and Djibouti by 2009, and Kenya by 2010,” Mihret said. He did not say how much power Ethiopia will supply those countries.
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TYPES OF PLATE MOVEMENT: Divergence, Convergence, and Lateral Slipping
At the boundaries of the plates, various deformations occur as the plates interact; they separate from one another (seafloor spreading), collide (forming mountain ranges), slip past one another (subduction zones, in which plates undergo destruction and remelting), and slip laterally.
Divergent Plate Movement: Seafloor Spreading
Seafloor spreading is the movement of two oceanic plates away from each other (at a divergent plate boundary), which results in the formation of new oceanic crust (from magma that comes from within the Earth’s mantle) along a a mid-ocean ridge. Where the oceanic plates are moving away from each other is called a zone of divergence. Ocean floor spreading was first suggested by Harry Hess and Robert Dietz in the 1960’s.
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