Op-Ed, in defense of Gigel Gibe III, “full steam ahead YE-WENZEY-LEJ”

By: Semeon

In the past few days news started coming out that “environmentalists” were vehemently opposed to the development of hydro power plants on the Gibe river. Dear reader you may ask “What took them so long?!!”. Sorry for the delay, but you see they were busy somewhere else. With the Amazon Rain Forest which needs immediate saving, the Three Gorges Dam project to be condemned, chasing Japanese whaling ships across the oceans, not to mention the Sumatran Slug that needed rescuing, they were spread a little thin and they apologize for the inconvenience. Why do we Ethiopians think that we should be at the front of the line and always insist that we be a priority case anyway?

It was in total disbelief that we read these pronouncements from the “Friends of the Earth” crowd. They have become so brazen, so in your face that nothing and no one is spared their venomous attack. These self appointed guardians of the planet have gone so out of control that they have started dictating policies to countries who depend, at least for the time being, on the goodwill of western nations and their financial institutions. It is one thing to protest about tax payer’s money being spent on projects in foreign lands and quite another to interject one self, uninvited, in the transactions between sovereign nations and willing private financial institutions. It is a sad day indeed to see these self loathing and guilt ridden individuals take the mantle of the sweet sons and daughters of the west who said “HELL NO!” to apartheid. What a crying shame that these are the inheritors of a once brave, proud and selfless movement for justice.

So what was in the news that got us so worked up and foaming at the mouth you ask dear reader. Well, according to those who have taken it upon themselves the duty of saving planet earth from calamity, the construction of the Gilgel Gibe III dam is an affront to “mother nature” and an unmitigated disaster. They presented their reasons why they are so opposed to the project and it is out there for all to see. It is so laughable, so infantile an argument that others would have dismissed it as “oh! it is just another green garbage of a story”, and rightly so. We can not afford to do that, not yet. We can not allow these modern day Druids ram their cultish beliefs down our throats. Dear reader here are some of the “profound” and “well thought out” reasoning of theirs.

As reported on environmental-finance.com

Communities

The EIA [Environmental Impact Assessment] reports that 400 households will be displaced, and social and commercial exchange between communities on different sides of the river interrupted. The NGOs allege inadequate consultation, in particular with 275 nomadic households which they say have not been considered for consultation or compensation.

For a moment we thought that there must be a mistake about the quoted numbers. We read again and it is 675 households that will be affected by the project! The way they tried to portray the whole thing was that it sounded as if thousands have been put to the sword! More, a lot more have been displaced to make way for a public road. A hell lot more have been truly displaced for political reasons. But displacement is not the real reason why the “enviro-warriors” are up in arms. We will address that further down. Let’s stay with the issue they have raised and give it some context. Let us say, for arguments sake, that each Gibe household has 10 people. That will be 6,750 souls affected by the project. Never mind that a good majority of them can and should be, by design, direct beneficiaries of the project. Now let us see what another famous hydro power project encountered in the way of displacement.

The Aswan High Dam, Egypt: Displaced some 90,000 people and flooded great archaeological sites (Debod Temple, Temple of Dendur etc.), produces 2100 MW of power on a good day and regulates irrigation down stream. Now compare that with Gilgel Gibe III, a power plant that will produce 1870 MW of power and which will displace 6,750 people. A simple arithmetic shows that Gilgel Gibe III has 12 times less impact! But dear reader when was the last time you heard Egyptians being chastised for their desperate effort to manage the Nile river as they wish so as to stay a viable nation state?

Energy Exports

The NGOs say that Ethiopia’s infrastructure will not be able to absorb the extra electricity from the dam, suggesting that most will be exported, which they call “a questionable priority” for the country given its development situation.

How can anyone who claims to speak on behalf of the planet be so monumentally dense? This must be a first in mercantile history of nations that a country is brought to task and asked to explain itself why it is trying to export excess production of a universally sought after natural resource. Since time immemorial the production and export of more goods and services than a particular community or nation can possibly consume has been the ultimate goal of all economic endeavor. And through the proceeds from this transaction acquire goods and services that the community or nation does not produce. Even such rudimentary concept of economics seems to be beyond the grasp of the “save the planet” gang!

It was only a few days ago that the news media were hyperventilating about “South African gold mines grind to a halt!!”, “Mozambique cuts power to Zimbabwe!!” etc. and here you are dear reader, you stand accused of trying to export excess power to neighboring countries who desperately need it and are willing to pay a premium price for it! They do make it sound as if Ethiopia is hatching this nefarious plan to send across its boarders a lethal and toxic product! But that is NOT the way it is portrayed when it is done by the western nations.

Here is an example. In a recent article on waterpowermagazine.com you will find this.

Minnesota Power said that the long-term deal would require construction of hydro power plants in northern Manitoba and major new transmission links facilities between Canada and the US.

In a statement, Don Shippar, chief executive of Allete, the parent of Minnesota Power, said: ‘We are pleased to co-operate with our neighbour and long-term utility partner to secure this clean, carbon-free energy resource for our customers.’

Now let us look at the other half of their “rigorous” analysis. “Ethiopia’s infrastructure will not be able to absorb the extra electricity….”. When was the last time that any nation built its industrial base and sat and waited till an energy source to operate them is found! Where does this twisted logic come from. Obviously these folks do not have the slightest clue how hydro power plants are brought on line to their peak capacity as demand grows through time. Ethiopia with electricity coverage of less than 20% at a level of 27KWh/yr per person (Canada 16047, Egypt 1042) should be the last nation to be accused of lacking absorption capacity. But then the slogan mongering enviro crowd was never known for logical thinking.

Emissions: The dam will create a 150 kilometer-long reservoir upstream, submerging 500 hectares of agricultural land, 1,500 hectares of riverine forest and 25,000 hectares of deciduous woodland, according to the NGOs. The EIA states that 20.4 million cubic meters of biomass would be left to decompose underwater, which the NGOs say would cause “a significant amount of greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions” from the reservoir. They say no analysis of the GHG emissions from the reservoir has been carried out, which would be in violation of JPMorgan’s requirements under its environmental policy.

Now at first glance, one will be tempted to conclude that the Gibe project is a disastrous undertaking. And that, dear reader, is the exact intent of the accusation. Numbers are quiet misleading unless and otherwise they are analyzed comparatively. For a similar power output the Aswan High Dam created a reservoir 550 kilometers long! 500 hectares of agricultural land is held by just 4 family-sized farmsteads in the US! Had Ethiopia chosen to produce 1870MW of electric power from coal fired plants, it would have pumped 9 million tons of toxic and green house gases into the atmosphere annually!! Dear reader compound that over the average life time of a hydro power plant (say 70 years) and we hope you will get a clearer picture.

The whole “environmental movement” has found a new sledge hammer with which it can clobber developing nations and threaten spineless politicians of the west. It seems that leaders of nations and financial institutions would prefer to be accused of child molestation rather than be labeled as “unfriendly to the environment”. Would it be an exaggeration if we say that the age of “enviro-fascism” is upon us?

Questions over the procurement process:

Under Ethiopian law and international guidelines, an international tender should have been issued by for the construction of the dam. Instead, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) signed a contract with Salini after direct negotiations.

Just when we started thinking that our enviro-friends have more issues about the well being of the planet, they change their tune and sound like the legal representatives of construction companies that were not invited to take part in the project! Ethiopia is hardly the birth place of no-bid contracts. Nations do it all the time and for various reasons. It is a sovereign nation’s prerogative to strike the best deal possible and the nation’s interest is paramount.

Do these groups seriously think that we believe them when they scream “We care about the Gibe pastoralists more than you do!”? Do they really delude themselves to this extent? Apparently so!

Dear reader we wanted to spare you the agony of reading the next “argument” of theirs, but if you have come so far you might as well read the ultimate insult hurled at us.

Alternative: As alternatives to Gilgel Gibe 3, campaigners are advocating a major effort to increase the supply of cooking fuels to rural communities

It does boggle the mind does it not!? The very same people for whom “fuel” is a four letter word, the very same crowd that advocates the end of hydrocarbon fuel use is now suggesting that an ocean sized supply of cooking fuel be found for rural communities of Ethiopia post-haste! The campaigners who claim that the earth is on the verge of collapse because of carbon emission have come up with this “brilliant” and life changing solution. Does ignorance cause such a lapse of judgment or do we ascribe it to sheer insanity?

What is so vexing and so thinly disguised is the utter contempt they have for poor nations! It does not require any leap of imagination to see through that “alternative”. Dear reader what they are really saying is “Curb your enthusiasm!! You are here on the planet by some freak chance of mother nature. All you need to do is somehow survive till mother nature corrects the anomaly. In the mean time, here, have some cooking fuel!”. What they are really saying is “Forget your aspirations for your children to go to school and never mind that small clinic you are dreaming of having in your village, it is not going to happen”.

The philosophical underpinning of the movement that calls itself “friends of the earth” is no less heinous than Nazi ideology! It claims that certain part of humanity is a scar on the face of “mother earth”. The poorer the society, the uglier the scar. Deny those societies the wherewithal to bring themselves out of poverty and they will disappear, sooner or later, but the sooner the better. In the mean time “give them cooking fuel”

These dear reader are the people who shed reservoir full of crocodile tears for our misfortune. These are the folks for whom the ultimate self-sacrifice means becoming vegetarian (so was Adolf Hitler by the way). This new dogma has become so prevalent that any challenge to it is considered anathema. Never forget dear reader only a while back their fathers and elder brothers sold us “scientific socialism”. And we all know what a resounding success that was!

And our message to all those who work on the Gibe projects is:

“Full steam ahead YE-WENZAY-LEJ”

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