If not the average person on the street, Ethiopia’s elites have probably heard many times in their life-time the coining of Ethiopia as “The Water Tower of Africa.” Connoisseurs did not attach this label to the east African country in vain, as the connotation associated with it is by no means wrong: Ethiopia is, indeed, a land endowed with an abundance of water. There are quite a lot of lakes and trans-boundary rivers that flow across its regions, some meandering into neighbouring countries. This invaluable source of wealth in the country has significantly contributed to the revolutionisation of economies over the years, as well as transformed the lives of a huge number of people in neighboring Egypt and the Sudan.

River Nile, locally fed by the river Abay, emanates from Lake Tana and is treasured in Egypt as it is the pillar of the North African economy. The same applies to most other streams that wet the arid lands of Somalia and Sudan. These “water powers” that originate from Ethiopia, have long been a God –given gift to Ethiopian nationals.

They have, over the years, stimulated the economy from various directions, serving to buttress sectors that make up the economic system. Recently, however, they have failed to back a crucial section of the economy: the country’s energy sector, which year in and year out seems to find itself bound by a number of enigmas.

Over one month ago, the nations’ power monopoly, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) announced that it would implement power rationing for the month of April 2008. In the earlier days of the notice, the announcements were not even accompanied by convincing reasons for this move. It was simply dismissed as being a problem with maintenance of transmission lines, which soon proved to be nothing but a cover up of the real problem: the failure of Belg rains in southern and eastern parts of the country, which eventually resulted in low water dam levels. One cannot help but simply wonder why such truths should be kept secret from the public. Wouldn’t have an early revelation  enabled the corporation’s clients to make a rational decision, or even sympathizes with the monopoly? Wouldn’t it have been advantageous for its corporate customers to make plans for future business dealings, bearing this in mind, putting the real factor as a determinant of the problem, rather than depending on futile hopes of a resolution to it? After all, the state utility monopoly is rendering services to these clients and they deserve to be served honestly.

It is understandable if a corporation, that has ambitions of serving half of the nation’s geographical area with electric power, is embarrassed by the incident. Amid the construction of six massive hydropower projects - Tekezee (300mw), Beles (460mw), Gibe II (420mw), Finachaa-Amerti-Neshi (100mw), Wind Mill (120mw) and Gibe III (1870mw) - over 1.4 million households and businesses in Addis Abeba and 1,800 cities across the country have still experienced electric power interruptions lately. Rightly so,  the authorities at the corporation are uncomfortable with the problem.

EEPCo has been the sole provider of power for over four decades now. Throughout the years since then, the corporation has been toiling to improve access to electricity to the nation through various power sector development programmes, but it has still a long way to go towards satisfying even just half of the population’s demand for power.

The Ethiopian energy sector is one of the least developed in the world. At present, the country is heavily dependent on traditional fuels consisting mainly of wood, crop residues and animal waste. The low level of energy is paralleled by limited use of electricity. Without access to modern energy services, the poor people in the country will not be able to grow beyond subsistence level. Access to modern energy supply makes it possible to improve living conditions substantially. However, the corporation is busy with its ambitious plans of export electricity to neighboring Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya without having succeeded in supplying adequate energy locally.

Faced with the alarming reality of the absence of satisfactory modern energy supply and realizing the contributions it has for the realization of “Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), the federal government seems to be committed to reverse the situation by shifting gradually from traditional energy sources to modern energy sources. The plan has given priority to the development of indigenous renewable energy sources, mainly hydropower, with a goal towards attaining self-sufficiency in the country. Nonetheless, the recent experience should be a lesson to the EEPCo, it should not only limit itself to the harnessing of hydroelectric power. If other sources of energy like wind and geothermal are not given the attention they ought to be given, an identical scenario is bound to recur often because the power generation capacity of dams is still determined by the amount of downpour.

Even though Ethiopia is endowed with all sources of energy such as hydro, solar, wind, bio-mass and geothermal, it has not been able to develop, transform and utilize these resources for optimal economic development.

Ethiopa is, indeed, the “water tower” of Africa, yet, ironically, the level of electrification in the country is the lowest even among many African countries. For instance, rural electrification is only one per cent. The energy sector strategic plan gives high priority to hydropower development, and considers it as the back-bone of the country’s energy sector development strategy as it is the most abundant and sustainable energy source.

Recognizing the importance of electricity for poverty reduction and social transformation, the government has launched the Universal Electricity Access Programme. Undeniably, it has given electricity access to a relatively higher number of customers of late; over 900 towns throughout the country have been electrified. Moreover 240 rural towns have got round the clock electricity service. On the other hand, in the next three years, 6,000 rural towns are expected to be electrified.
 

This is not something to brag about though. The modest achievements of the utility provider have been overshadowed by an utter failure to provide adequate services recently. The power interruptions will be continuing for the second month, and will probably not stop in June. There could be nothing more disappointing for the officials at the helm of the corporation, and the federal government.

When the power rationing was enacted five years ago for identical reasons, it was only for three days of the week that there was a power outage. This time, it has rather increased, implying that not much has been done in the ensuing periods to ensure the sustainability of the power supply.

This will definitely have severe consequences. Industries will be forced to cut production, services will be interrupted, and eventually the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country will drop. If this is the case, the double-digit consecutive growth that has been making federal authorities swank will soon become just a dream.

The federal government should come up with better solutions, even if what it takes involves privatizing this massive corporation, putting behind its most adored concept of monopolization. With the resources Ethiopia has, especially in hydropower, this should not be what its nationals should get. There needs to be a bold and courageous move to revolutionising the sourcing of energy. Authorities should not act as if business is as usual while it is not.

Or else, aspiring to be a center of excellence in providing quality electric service at every one’s door will only remain a dream.