get my
daily dose of current affairs about the Horn of
Africa by briefly visiting the usual international news media like BBC News,
CNN, VOA, and a select few web-based news
outlets like AllAfrica and U. S. -based
websites on Ethiopian current affairs. During
one of my regular visits to the online BBC News
on Africa, a headline entitled ‘The dam that
divides Ethiopians’ caught my attention and I
started to carefully review it. There were
multiple pages of rehashed, sensational stories,
and video clips by a BBC reporter, who
prophesized about the doomsday scenario of
‘catastrophic impact’ on the lower Omo
communities, potential warfare between these
communities and the Ethiopian government as well
as ecological disasters if the Gibe III
hydroelectric dam construction is allowed to
proceed. I would not have been surprised if the
BBC online article and the opposition to the
Gibe III dam construction were based on unbiased
scientific evaluation and from qualified
environmentalists and ecologists. Instead, it
was from a shady organization called the
“African Resources Working Group” and its
celebrity spokesman Mr. Richard Leakey, who is
not a “world renowned ecologist” but a former
hominid-fossil hunter in the Turkana basin of
northern Kenya. As far as I was
able to determine the “African Resources Working
Group” is led by a geographer from a Montana
university in the United States and it includes
a social anthropologists and an archaeologist
from Europe and the United States who probably
hold permits from the Ethiopian Government to
conduct cultural research in southern and
southwestern Ethiopia, and probably Mr. Richard
Leakey as its African member. By the way, some
of these people may be funded by the World Bank
to do their “cultural” research. Anyway, what
do these individuals have in common? Well, the
“African Resources Working Group” members and
their colleagues are directly or indirectly
associated with the “Turkana Basin Institute”,
which is led by Mr. Richard Leakey.
These people
have no expertise in ecology and environmental
issues of river basins but they have chosen to
mobilize an international public opinion against
the funding of the Gibe III project for their
own interest by using the lower Omo River basin
communities to conceal their ulterior motives.
Why was I surprised by the vocal opposition of
the “African Resources Working Group” and Mr.
Richard Leakey to the Gilgel Gibe III dam
project? According to the “Turkana Basin
Institute” objective “a new and exciting
research program addressing the entire span of
human evolution is planned in the Omo-Turkana
Basin of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia”
and hopes to facilitate the recovery of fossils
and archaeological evidence and the training of
African scientists to participate in fossil and
archaeological discoveries.
Unfortunately, the
“Turkana Basin Institute” is an international
front for raising money in the name of
Africans. Why is there a sudden urge to train
Kenyan/African scientists in archaeology and
anthropology at this time when geology,
paleontology, and archaeology investigations
have been going on in the Turkana and Omo Basins
since the 1960s and no serious effort was
launched to train Africans in the last 40
years? By the way, I wonder if the “Turkana
Basin Institute” has a permit from the Ethiopian
Government to conduct research in southern
Ethiopia while undermining the country’s
endeavor to develop and harness its water
resources. So, why are Mr. Richard Leakey, the
chairman of the “Turkana Basin Institute”, a
fossil and archeology research outfit and his
colleagues from the “African Resources Working
Group” mobilizing a worldwide opposition to the
Gibe III project? Although I do not have a
clear explanation, the “Turkana Basin Institute”
and its supporters probably want the lower Omo
Basin communities to remain in their current
life style so that the social anthropologists
associated with the “African Resources Working
Group” could keep them as their experimental
subjects for the foreseeable future by
preventing the genuine efforts of the Ethiopian
Government to develop the lower Omo River basin,
which would inevitably bring some measure of
development to the inhabitants.
Given the rapid
population growth in Ethiopia, the vocal
opposition has to be realistic and contribute to
the balanced development of natural resources.
Human beings are altering the environment around
themselves whether it is in Ethiopia or anywhere
else around the globe. Thus, Ethiopia must
responsibly develop its water resources by
taking advantage of lessons learned from the
developed economies of the world and
particularly from the United States.
For example,
multiple dams constructed on the Columbia,
Colorado, and the Tennessee Rivers in the
western and eastern United States, respectively,
have provided abundant information about the
negative impacts of human intervention on the
complex eco-hydrological conditions of river
basins. Despite man-made environmental impacts,
nature is dynamic and resilient and it quickly
mends the effects of human and/or natural
interventions. The Columbia, Colorado, and the
Tennessee Rivers and other similar projects
across the United States have totally
transformed the quality of life of millions of
Americans forever because of the abundant energy
generated at these river basins, the irrigation
system that has led to the most productive farm
lands in the world, the benefit of permanent
flood control, and the world-class recreation
facilities that these dams have created.
Ethiopia, the “land of perpetual famine and
drought” also wants to transform the quality of
life of its citizens by responsibly harnessing
its rich water resources. If famine in Ethiopia
is to be brought under control, any responsible
government needs to harness its natural
resources, especially its water resources, for
lasting benefit to its citizens. It is in this
spirit that Ethiopia must do more to tame its
wild rivers in the north, south, east, west, and
central parts of the country. Multiple projects
on the Wabi Shebele, Dawa, Genale, Omo, Baro,
Abbay, Tekeze, Mereb, and the Awash are needed
to liberate Ethiopia from perpetual handouts
that do not seem to make a difference in the
livelihood of its population.
Like any other
dam, the Gibe III project will impact the
downstream communities and the eco-hydrological
conditions of the river basin in the short term
and at the same time it will regulate the
unpredictable seasonal fluctuations of flow and
flooding hazards. By the way, it has not been
that long when a BBC News headline on 16 August
2006 reported “Hundreds dead in Ethiopian flood”
because the Omo River inundated a huge area and
killed hundreds of people and unknown numbers of
domestic and wild animals (see also floods
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5299852.stm
). Had it not been for the quick reaction and
bravery of the Ethiopian Defense Forces more
people would have drowned and also killed by
crocodiles and poisonous snakes. I also remember
the August 27, 2006 “Worldwatch Institute”
headline “Ethiopia Hit by Flooding in North,
South, and East.” Ethiopia must learn from past
experience and do more to prevent future
occurrences of devastating floods and drought.
According to a
recent report, Ethiopia has not been seriously
impacted by extreme climatic events since 2003
but it must be prepared for future extreme
weather conditions because of ongoing global
climate change effects. There is no doubt that
the timely completion of the Gibe III and other
water-harvesting and storage projects will
contribute to protecting the country from future
climatic shocks. In 1984, the Horn of Africa
was hit by extreme drought and famine that
killed hundreds and thousands if not millions of
people and domestic and wild animals
particularly in Ethiopia and Sudan, whereas
Egypt was spared from such climatic shock
because of the Aswan dam.
In a recent (January
2009) national conference on climate change in
Ethiopia, the British educated and
world-renowned ecologist and environmentalist
Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebregziabher, who is
Director General of Ethiopia’s Environmental
Protection Authority said “… we are increasingly
restricting, and even stopping, free-range
domestic animal grazing. We have thus been
allowing Mother Earth to put on her lovely green
robe of improved vegetation cover. This will
continue to sequester some carbon.” This is
what Ethiopia and its scientific team under the
leadership of Dr. Tewolde Berhan is doing to
restore its degraded environment. My only
advise to the vocal opposition from the “African
Resources Working Group’ and their spokesman Mr.
Richard Leakey, the Chairman of the “Turkana
Basin Institute”, who is described as a
“renowned ecologist” by the BBC reporter is to
back off and concentrate on their fossil and
archaeology hunting and leave the ecological and
environmental concerns related to the Gibe III
project to the Ethiopian experts.
Anyway, the
continued vocal opposition from the “African
Resources Working Group” and from the “Turkana
basin Institute” reminds me of a famous
Ethiopian proverb, which states, “A teenage
daughter tries to teach her mother about child
birthing and maternity.” For those of you who
may not know, the ecological and environmental
well being of Ethiopia and the rest of the
developing world are being championed by none
other than Dr. Tewolde Berhan, the Director
General of the Ethiopian Environment Protection
Authority, who received the international
Alternate Nobel Prize or the Right Livelihood
Award in 1999. The award is conferred on
individuals “working on practical and exemplary
solutions to the most urgent challenges facing
the world today.” It is impossible for Mr.
Leakey and company to know better.
