(Washington, DC, July 13, 2012) – The World Bank undermined the rights of
indigenous peoples and the environment with its approval
on July 12, 2012, of a US$684 million loan, Human Rights Watch, Friends of Lake
Turkana, International Rivers, Survival International, and the Bank Information
Center said today. The loan is for a 1000-kilometer transmission line that
would supply power to Kenya from Ethiopia’s
controversial Gibe III dam.
The World Bank’s board of directors approved the loan without
applying the Bank’s social and environmental standards to the Gibe III dam,
a power source for the transmission line. Gibe III, under construction in
southern Ethiopia, has been linked to serious human rights abuses and environmental
concerns, the organizations said.
“The World Bank stood by its principles in 2010 when it refused to fund the
Gibe III dam in the absence of concrete measures to uphold the rights of
indigenous peoples and address serious environmental concerns,” said IkalAngelei from Friends of Lake
Turkana. “Now it has stamped on those same principles by funding Gibe III
through the back door.”
Gibe III could devastate ecosystems that support 500,000 indigenous peoples in
the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia and
around Kenya’s Lake
Turkana. In 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)’s World Heritage Committee called on the Ethiopian
government to immediately halt
all construction on the dam, which will impact several sites of universal
cultural and ecological value. In August 2011, the Kenyan parliament passed a
resolution asking for the suspension of dam construction pending further
studies.
“The World Bank’s actions show that Ethiopia is not alone in ignoring the huge
impacts of this destructive dam,” said Lori Pottinger,
Africa campaigner at International Rivers. “The people of the Omo Valley and Lake Turkana are going to be left high and
dry by this scheme. It seems to be a very misguided way to do poverty
alleviation.”
Downstream from Gibe III, the Ethiopian government has plans for 245,000
hectares of state-run irrigated sugar plantations, which are already having serious
consequences for the 200,000 indigenous residents of the Lower Omo Valley. These include the loss of grazing land and
cultivation sites, and forced relocation into villages that often lack basic
services. These residents, from eight groups, rely on the 760-kilometer-long Omo River for growing crops and replenishing grazing lands
during annual flooding. Ethiopian state security forces have used intimidation,
assaults, and arbitrary
arrests when people questioned the relocations or refused to move.
“Indigenous communities in the Omo Valley are paying
a terrible price for the Gibe III dam and agricultural development that runs
roughshod over their rights,” said Jessica
Evans, senior international financial institutions advocate at Human Rights
Watch. “The World Bank should be standing firmly behind its social and
environmental policies rather than pretending that the dam is unconnected to
this project.”
The World Bank requires that projects it funds follow its safeguard
policies to assess and mitigate adverse environmental and social impacts.
If a project results in the loss of livelihood, the Bank requires effective
consultation with the affected people, adequate compensation for their losses,
and sufficient measures so that they can at least maintain their previous
living standards under the new circumstances. When indigenous peoples are
involved, the Bank’s policy requires
additional procedures to ensure that the consultation, compensation, and
relocation process respects the cultural and physical needs of the affected
community.
Neither the World Bank nor the Ethiopian government has sufficiently analyzed
the negative impacts of the Gibe III dam, the organizations said. Combined with
the plans to increase irrigated agriculture, these projects will dramatically
decrease water supply for downstream areas including Lake Turkana,
which receives 90 percent of its water from the Omo
River. This will further increase competition over scarce resources for the
additional 300,000 indigenous peoples who live around Lake Turkana.
“The World Bank is lowering its standards and assuming serious reputational
risk by taking on this project,” said Joshua Klemm,
Africa manager of the Bank Information Center. “Financing the transmission line
sends a signal to Ethiopia that it can ignore massive impacts of damming its
rivers, and still get rewarded.”
