BY DESALEGN SISAY for Afrik.com A Chinese loan has been secured for Ethiopia’s biggest Hydropower project, Gilgel Gibe III, after years of pressure from foreign environmentalists blocked access to funding from international financial institutions. Chinese government has approved a 500 million dollar loan to cover the project’s electro and hydro mechanical costs. Gibe, which is [...]
Dams are about people, not power: The trouble with Gilgel Gibe
For the brilliance of the headline alone… PATRICK GATHARA says for The East African The construction of the Gilgel Gibe III dam on the Omo river in Ethiopia has been condemned by conservationists and indigenous rights campaigners as a white elephant, a monument to government myopia, incompetence and greed. In return, the authorities accuse these [...]
Ethiopia’s Newest Dam Suffers Tunnel Collapse Days After Inauguration
A critical water-passage tunnel in the newly inaugurated Gilgel Gibe 2 hydropower project in Ethiopia reportedly collapsed this week. With a price tag of 374 million Euros and a capacity of 420 megawatts, Gilgel Gibe 2 is currently Ethiopia’s biggest power plant. The project channels the water discharged from the Gilgel Gibe 1 Dam through [...]
