Environmental and Social Impact Assessment - Gibe III

Gibe III – Environmental and Social Impact Assessment 300 ENV R CS 002 C - A9003099
• Undesirable effect of the project; and
• Measures for mitigating the adverse effects.
The points raised in the discussion are depicted below.
Benefit:
Understanding about the benefit that the project would provide to the community is not more than skin-deep
although they are well aware of its disadvantages.
Disadvantages:
• As the reservoir is going to claim vast tracts of land, the community not only loses farm land, but
also it will have very limited access to forest resources like wood for house constructions and grass
for thatch roofs; including energy sources;
• Beekeeping will be impeded by the decimation of forests and resulting in the loss of income to the
households;
• Loss of grazing land and browsing areas for domestic animals will take place; as well as the loss of
land with salty soils, locally known as bole, where livestock very much prefer licking; and
• It will be no more possible to harvest root crops that are found naturally and vital sources of food in
times of drought and distress.
Measures for offsetting the losses:
• FGD participants finally appealed to appropriate Government units to have exhaustively identify all
those farmers who are going to be displaced and then compensate them with a means that
commensurate their losses.
Place/Venue of the FG: In the Compound of Kebele Office Date: 10/03/08
Wereda: Soro FGD composition: Small scale livestock producers
Kebele Gebaba Lange, Bureye Lange and
Ombo Lange
Number of participants: 28
The FGDs were composed of farmers who predominantly engage in livestock and topics of discussions have
mainly revolved around three key areas.
• The benefit they believe that would result from the project;
• Adverse effects due to the project and;
• Solutions to be considered by the government.
Outcomes of the discussions are summarised below.
Expected benefit of the project:
• The FGD participants believe that the project is of immense benefit to the country as well as to the
local communities.
Adverse effect of the project:
• Usually livestock producers are constrained by shortages of grazing land. In the face of such
situation, for about nine months, they leave for other places hankering after grazing lands. They
often travel to various weredas across vast expanse of land to the extent of crossing Gibe River to the
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