Environmental and Social Impact Assessment - Gibe III

Gibe III – Environmental and Social Impact Assessment 300 ENV R CS 002 C - A9003099
During the construction period, there will likely be more women engaged in income generating activities,
running restaurants and bars, or selling local products to construction camp workers. These activities will
benefit mainly women who are very often the sole supporters of their families.
Therefore, it is recommended for the contractor to use his best endeavours to maximise local hire of labour
and give priority to women, in so far as this is compatible with his skill requirements, and to maximise local
procurement of supplies.
6.8 Fishery development
The project aims to construct approximately 230m high dam on the Omo River thereby creating a reservoir
with a total storage of about 12,500 Mm 3 and a surface area of about 200 km 2 .
This is a large artificial lake that provides different environmental and ecological niches for diverse fish
species, requiring habitats with varying depth from shallow littoral zone to deep demersal and pelagic areas.
A number of fish species now inhabiting the river are expected to adapt to the lentic environment of the
reservoir that will be created.
Many of the fish species are also present in the southern Rift Valley Lakes of Chamo and Abaya and it
would be expected that these and related species present in the Omo River could adapt to the new reservoir
to support an important commercial fishery industry that could be created in the future reservoir fishery. The
reservoir fishery is much more productive than the riverine fishery (which is not utilized at the moment) and
this increases the income of the people and improves the nutritional quality (protein food supply) of the
community.
Commercial fishing would also be allowed downstream the dam including in the river delta, based on the
regulation of the flow that will also make the rive navigable all year round. Fishing facilities would all be
protected from the floods annual devastation, which poses serious financial obstacles to the development of
fisheries in the lower valley of the Omo River.
Positive effects on fishing activities would be extended to the Turkana Lake shores, as the worrying deficit
trend in the hydrological balance of the lake would be significantly mitigated if not reversed. In fact, huge
amounts of water are lost by evaporation in the floodplains where uncontrolled water logging inevitably
occurs, due to the extremely high temperatures and frequent drought crisis. Much less surface would be
exposed to cause evaporation in the reservoir, and climatic conditions there are anyway unlikely to cause
comparable losses. The contribution to restore the original hydrology of the entire Turkana basin is
undeniable, and would have as such a clear significance in any international negotiation on equitable sharing
of transboundary water resources. The underground water table would benefit from continuous recharge
from the river, a major improvement from the flash-floods almost useless in this respect, with positive
implications in terms of water supply during the long dry season.
6.9 Regulation of the River Flow for Irrigation
According to the expectations of the weredas’ officials, with the construction of the dam and creation of the
reservoir the Omo River will come closer to the nearby settlements and the people will have the opportunity
to use the river water for small scale irrigation development.
CESI SpA - Mid-Day International Consulting Engineers Page 186