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Q. Concerning the Gilgel Gibe III project, a lot of
views have surfaced and some say there is not enough
Environmental Impact Assessment; others say it has
been done very well. What is your view in this
regard and what is the feedback you have from the
Kenyan side?
Its environmental impact has to be viewed both in
the context of the individual project and also in
the context of the general development strategy of
Ethiopia. The latter is designed to insure a
carbon-neutral or green development program in
Ethiopia. This means that we should generate power
(electricity) from renewable sources. We have huge
potential to do so; a potential to generate more
than 60,000Mw of electricity from hydropower;
anywhere in the vicinity of 6,000Mw from wind power
and 1,000 to 2,000Mw from geothermal power. So, we
have a huge capacity and potential to generate
electricity from renewable sources.
We have been investing a lot to generate electricity
from these sources, not only for our own domestic
conception, but also to export to neighbouring
countries which are not so endowed. So our
electricity generation strategy is environmentally
friendly as a whole, not only viewed from the point
of view of Ethiopia, but also from the Horn of
Africa perspective because we expected to export
electricity generated from renewable sources to
countries which do not have such resources,
including Kenya, Djibouti and Sudan.
In addition to that, we have developed a strategy
to, over time, replace fossil fuel resources with
bio fuel resources. This is in its early stages so
far but we do have that strategy and it is
consistent with our carbon neutral approach to
development.
We have also been involved in projects that would
sequester carbon in significant amounts, mostly
through reforestation programs across the country.
So we balance these three pillars of our development
strategy - carbon sequestration, biofuel strategy
and generation of electricity from renewable
sources. We believe that our development strategy is
exemplary in its approach to the environment. That
is the context within which we view the Gilgel Gibe
III project.
As far as Kenya is concerned, some people do not
know that much of the electricity generated from the
Gilgel Gibe III is going to be exported to Kenya. We
already have an agreement, in principle (between
Ethiopia and Kenya), to sell electricity generated
from the project to Kenya. Indeed, at one stage, the
Kenyans were eager to invest in the project itself;
they wanted it to be carried out on the bases of
joint venture between Ethiopia and Kenya.
While Ethiopia was very happy with it, we were of
the opinion that as the project had already made
some progress, to restructure it with a view to
include equity contribution from Kenya would have
delayed the project. That is the only reason why
Gilgel Gibe III is an Ethiopian project as opposed
to an Ethiopian-Kenyan project. The desire on the
part of Kenya was to invest in this hydropower dam
itself. I think Kenyans would never think of doing
so if they had any reason to believe that the
project would in anyway harm the environment of
either Ethiopia or Kenya. |
