Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 01:01:34 +0100
Ethiopian dam's ecological and human fallout could echo Aral Sea disaster
Study suggests irrigation projects linked to Gibe III dam could devastate
Lake Turkana's fisheries and affect livelihoods
* John Vidal <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/johnvidal>
*
* The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian> , Wednesday 5
March 2014 15.25 GMT
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/africa> Africa's fourth-largest lake
could drop by 20 metres, causing an ecological and human disaster to rival
the shrinking of the Aral Sea in central Asia, if
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/ethiopia> Ethiopia goes ahead with massive
irrigation projects linked to a giant dam,
<http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/sites/sias/files/documents/WhatFutureLak
eTurkana.pdf> according to a university paper.
Lake Turkana, located almost entirely in Kenya but fed by the river Omo,
which rises in Ethiopia, will be severely impacted by the 243 metre-high
Gibe III dam, which is due to be completed this year, says the study,
published by the <http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk> University of
Oxford's African Studies Centre. It suggests
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/water> water levels could drop by
half, devastating the lake's fisheries and affecting the livelihoods of
170,000 agro-pastoralists.
"Ultimately, the 6,400 sq km lake could reduce to two small lakes. The
picture that emerges from these predictions bears a striking resemblance to
the recent disastrous history of the Aral Sea, which was once the world's
fourth-largest inland water body," said Sean Avery, a Nairobi-based
hydrologist who studied the impact of the dam project for the African
Development Bank.
The Aral Sea, which is shared between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, lost nearly
75% of its water in 30 years when vast amounts were abstracted by Soviet
farmers from its feeder rivers to grow cotton. The result has been the
collapse of the <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/fishing> fishing
industry, ill-health, climate change across the region, and severe dust
storms.
"The parallels [of the Aral Sea] with what might happen to the people and
environment of Lake Turkana and a large part of northern Kenya are clear. On
top of this, no feasibility studies or social and environmental impact
assessments in the Lower Omo have yet been published," Avery said.
The Ethiopian government claims that the $2bn (£1.2bn) dam, which is
intended to generate electricity for Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia,
will stop annual flooding of the Omo valley. But Avery argues that major
problems will occur when 450,000 hectares of irrigated sugar
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/farming> farming starts downstream
of the dam. "This will require a huge water abstraction from the Omo," he
said.
According to Avery, the water needed to fill the reservoir of the Gibe III
dam will equal one year's inflow into Lake Turkana. "The lake level will
fall up to two metres during reservoir filling, which is expected to take up
to three years. The fall will be temporary, however, since the lake level
will be substantially restored after another 16 years or so," he said.
"The picture changes dramatically, however, when the potential effects of
large-scale irrigation for industrial-scale sugar and biofuel plantations
are considered. The land area allocated for commercial agricultural
development is over 455,500 hectares, but the ultimate water requirement is
unknown at present. One scheme for which water needs are known and which is
now being implemented by the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation will equal in
extent the entire irrigated area of Kenya – approximately 170,000 hectares."
The effect on the lake's fisheries could be devastating, said Avery. "The
ecological and human impacts of the irrigation schemes have barely been
considered. No feasibility studies or social and environmental impact
assessments for irrigation development in the Lower Omo have yet been
published," he added.
The Ethiopian government claims 150,000 jobs will be created by the
plantations but human rights groups, including Survival International and
the Oakland Institute, say thousands of people are being evicted to make way
for the irrigated plantations.
"The abuses being carried out by the Ethiopian government in the Lower Omo
are incontrovertible," said David Turton, an Oxford University
anthropologist who has spent 40 years working in the Lower Omo valley.
"Thousands of agro-pastoralists are being evicted by government [decree]
from their most valuable agricultural land along the banks of the Omo to
make way for government-owned irrigated sugar plantations. The evictions are
being accompanied by a resettlement or 'villagisation' programme which,
although described as 'voluntary', is forced in the sense that those
affected have no reasonable alternative but to comply.
"No impact assessments, feasibility studies or resettlement plans have been
made available for public scrutiny and discussion. No plans have been
announced for compensation, benefit sharing or livelihood reconstruction.
And no attempt has been made to give the affected people a say in decision
making," he said.
MDG : A ship graveyard in the Aral Sea near Muynak, UzbekistanThe once vast
Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan shrank due to diversions of
water, leaving behind a salty wasteland. Photograph: Alexander
Zemlianichenko/AP
The region's top human rights body, the <http://www.achpr.org> African
Commission on Human and People's Rights, has written to the Ethiopian
government asking it to stop the forced resettlement of the Lower Omo tribes
while it investigates the allegations.
Officials from the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) and
the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which together gave
more than $800m in development aid to Ethiopia in 2011, visited the valley
in January 2012, but both agencies said they had found no evidence of human
rights abuses. Last month, however, the US Congress stopped any American
development aid being used to fund forced evictions of tribal people in the
area.
DfID denies British money is used for the evictions but Britain is the
biggest contributor to the World Bank's
<http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P128891/ethiopia-protection-basic-service
s-program-phase-iii-project?lang=en> promoting basic services programme,
funds from which provide budget support for Ethiopian local government.
Resettlement in the Lower Omo is the responsibility of the local
administration. "It would be stretching credulity beyond reasonable bounds
to believe DfID's claim that no UK money is being used to finance [the
evictions]," Turton said.
A DfID spokesman said, "Our aid to the government is only used to provide
healthcare, schooling, clean water and other services. The UK has never
funded the Government of Ethiopia's Commune Development or other
resettlement programmes and it is wrong to suggest that British development
money is used to force people from their homes."
"The Ethiopian government has not consulted any indigenous communities over
its aggressive plantation plans in the Omo Valley, and very few were
consulted over the construction of the Gibe III dam", said Stephen Cory,
director of Survival International. "It is high time that British
parliamentarians follow suit and ensure that DfID does not use UK taxpayers'
money to fund human rights violations in the Lower Omo."
Berhanu Kebede, Ethiopian ambassador in London, strongly refuted the
University of Oxford study. "The dam will store additional water to what is
currently present in the system – water that hitherto would have been wasted
– and will permit the rational management of this water in the basin," he
said.
"Lake Turkana will not lose a considerable amount of water, as claimed, and
Kenya will benefit from low-cost electricity to its growing economy, to the
tune of 400 megawatts, in the not-too-distant future."
• This article was amended 6 March to include a comment from DfID
MDG : A fisherman cleans fish in Lake Turkana, near the Kenya-Ethiopia
border
A fisherman cleans his catch in Lake Turkana. A study warns the Gibe III dam
project could devastate the lake's fisheries. Photograph: Siegfried
Modola/Reuters
Lake-Turkana_map_WEBMap showing location of Lake Turkana and Gibe III dam
project
MDG : Construction of Gibe III Dam, near Lake Turkana, EthiopiaAt 243
metres, the Gibe III dam will be the highest on the continent. Photograph:
Jenny Vaughan/AFP/Getty Images
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