Environmental and Social Impact Assessment - Gibe III

Gibe III – Environmental and Social Impact Assessment 300 ENV R CS 002 C - A9003099
8.7.2 Consultation with Zonal and Wereda Authorities
Consultation was conducted with the Dawro zone council, Gena Bossa and Loma wereda of the Dawro zone
and Kindo Koyisha wereda of the Wolayita zone administration council on the issues related to the impacts
of the project on the historic walls.
Local officials expressed their fear regarding the flooding of the walls. However, after consultation and a
joint field visit to some of these sites it was confirmed that only a relatively small portion of the wall will be
flooded.
Therefore, from the consultation process the following were proposed:
• Both Ijajo kella of Wolayita and the Halala Kella of Dawro should be registered immediately as
cultural heritage;
• Full documentation works should be carried out on the very high-risk sites before the sites will be
flooded;
• Further information should be collected and detailed study should be conducted to enrich the
information regarding the impact of the project on both historical walls;
• For those portions of the wall which will not be submerged by the reservoir, the administration of
Dawro and Wolayita Zone and its responsible offices should protect the wall of Halala and Jiao from
manmade and natural hazards (animal, human and developmental).
8.8 Consultation with NGOs and Other Organisations
Currently Farm Africa, Ethiopian Pastoralist Area Research and Development Association (EPARDA),
Catholic Church and Refuge Trust are those Non Governmental Organization’s which are actively involved
in the social and development activities within the community in the Lower Omo area.
These organizations are engaged in the activities of various socio-economic development sectors like the
health, education, water supply, livestock disease, conflict resolution, food security, natural resource and
agriculture.
According to them, the implementation of Gibe III project will have an impact for the community residing
along the lower Omo River on crop production, fish and livestock grazing. Therefore, development of small
scale irrigation, forage development, demonstration plots for crop and forage, and fish marketing are some of
the activities that will mitigate these impacts. During implementation of these measures, adopting such
activities which are currently practiced by other organization has a paramount importance and helps to
implement the interventions effectively.
8.9 Public Disclosure
It should be emphasized from the out set that the Gibe III hydroelectric project involves a multitude of
stakeholders ranging from project affected persons and communities to the project developer, regional and
federal governments through to financiers, environmentalists NGOs, etc. Needless to argue that
infrastructure projects such as Gibe III usually attract the attention of various stakeholders and hence are
often prone to criticism. This is especially true in today’s highly globalized world. It is not the type and the
number of criticisms made to an infrastructure project that is important. Rather, more important is the way
how such criticisms, both constructive or otherwise, are handled or entertained and taken care of.
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