If the World Bank withholds cash meant to build a transmission line to Link Kenya to electricity generated from Ethiopia’s mega Gibe III Dam, the idea would leave East Africa without US$ 1 Billion lost inform of energy costs every year.
The transmission line valued at US$ 1.3Billion is part of a broader plan to link the electricity grids of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, spurring growth and saving East African nations around $1 billion a year in energy costs.
The World Bank has been urged to withhold support for a power line that would take electricity from Ethiopia to Kenya, citing environmental and human rights concerns.
An advocacy group urged the new WB president Jim Yong Kim to hold fire. “The World Bank needs to rigorously apply its social and environmental safeguards,” a letter to Kim stated.
“Human Rights Watch has very serious concerns that the World Bank has failed to do so as the project currently stands.”
The roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) transmission line is part of a nearly $1.3 billion project to link energy-producing Ethiopia with Kenya — where as many as 80% of the population is without power.
However, Gibe III dam that will be the source of Electricity from Ethiopia is not funded by the World Bank.
There are concerns that Gibe III dam construction could cause serious environmental damage to Lake Turkana, a Unesco world heritage site.
Gibe III dam is the largest hydropower plant in Africa. When completed, the dam’s 243-metre high wall will be the tallest of its kind in the world.
The plan is for electricity to become Ethiopia’s biggest export.
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