The mud-colored Omo River, which snakes through green gorges, feeding lush vegetation and providing vital water to one of Ethiopia’s most remote regions, will also power a contentious dam project.
The government says the Gibe III dam will boost development, give access to power for many Ethiopians — about half of the population — currently living without it, and generate revenue from the export of electricity to the region.
But with construction under way for Africa’s highest dam at 243 meters (nearly 800 feet), critics say Ethiopia must also consider the environmental and social impact it will have on some 500,000 people living downstream and at Lake Turkana in neighboring Kenya. Their livelihoods rely on the river.
“If they’re going to build this huge hydro-power dam than it should be done in a way that benefits the people who are most affected,” said David Turton, a senior research fellow at Oxford University’s African Studies Center.
The Omo River is over 700 kilometers (430 miles) long and supplies Lake Turkana with 80 percent of its water. It is a source of annual flooding for the agro-pastoralists living in the South Omo valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The completion of the dam in 2014, which will have a capacity of 1,870 megawatts, will regulate the river’s flow and, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), offer a predictable water source for communities living along the river south of the dam.
Agro-pastoralists in Omo’s valley have traditionally relied on flood-retreat agriculture for cultivation and animal grazing.
“Before, the wet season was two months, or maximum three months, then there was nine months of drought, now for 12 months there will be a regulated flow for all the downstream users,” said EEPCo. chief executive Mirhet Debebe.
The centuries-old flood-retreat agriculture practised by the downstream tribes is a cultural mainstay of the Bodi, Mursi and Nyangatom tribes, famed for their lip-plate and body painting customs.
But Azeb Aznake, Gibe III project manager at EEPCo, has said artificial flooding would be created annually “so that their practice is not interrupted.” She said the regular river flow would provide irrigation for small-scale cultivators downstream, and denied that the Gibe III dam would feed irrigation channels to nearby foreign-owned plantations, as some groups have charged.
“The purpose of the dam is for hydroelectric power, and nothing more,” the power company executive said.
Most of the $1.8 billion (1.5 billion euro) cost of the project — the third in a series of five dams planned along the Omo River — will be covered by EEPCo, with a Chinese firm bankrolling the $400 million electromechanical costs. The dam has been mired in controversy from the project’s inception and the “Stop Gibe 3” online petition has collected over 18,000 signatures.
EEPCo’s Azeb admitted that any project of this magnitude is bound to have an impact on local communities and ecosystems, but said the overall benefits were too great to ignore.
“Water is our major resource.... We have to make use of it and develop, we have to eat three times a day like any human being, so there has to be compromise,” she said.
Power generated by the dam will be fed to a main transmission and sold to neighboring Djibouti — which is already receiving Ethiopian power — as well as Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland, providing a major source of income, CEO Mihret said.
For Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the US-based think tank Oakland Institute, which is opposed to the dam’s construction, the benefits are not widespread enough.
’There must be concern for social justice’ “It’s really about who benefits and what benefits.... At the macro level you might have increased exports, economic growth, but what about human development, what happens to the people?” he said in a phone interview from California.
He urged the Ethiopian government to halt the dam’s construction “so investment could go toward infrastructure that could really benefit the people.” Some nearby residents welcome the job opportunities that have accompanied the dam’s constructions. Over 4,000 Ethiopians have been hired to help build Gibe III, which was started in 2006 and is over 50 percent complete.
“It is good for our development and the area’s development (because) we get more employment,” said Mengistu Mara, 26, a student in Lala town about 30 kilometers away from Gibe III.
His brother who works as a crane operator at the dam pays Mengistu’s school fees at the local high school, built in 2009 by the dam’s contractors.
“I’m learning now because my brother is bringing me money,” he said, standing in front of the school built near the village’s newly paved road.
Lala resident Desalegn Barata, 41, also welcomed the job creation, but said that even with the construction site next door his community still has no clinic.
“There is no clinic or hospital and there are many diseases here,” he said, swatting at the flies swarming around him in the midday heat.
For analyst Turton, the government should prioritise social justice as the project moves ahead, saying it is possible to balance the benefits with the potential impact.
“This is often presented as a choice between development and what we sometimes call cultural preservation, it’s presented as sometimes you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs,” he said, adding that he is not opposed to the construction of Gibe III.
“But it should be done in a way that shows a concern for social justice.”
Ethiopian dam spurs debate
Ethiopian dam spurs debate
Hawks hold off Celtics in NBA overtime thriller
- Murray scored all 11 of the Hawks points in overtime, posting a career-high of 44 to help the Hawks maintain their push for an Eastern Conference play-in berth
- Zion Williamson scored 28 points and CJ McCollum added 25 to lead the Pelicans to a 107-100 victory over Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee Bucks
LOS ANGELES: Dejounte Murray drilled the go-ahead jump shot in the final second of overtime to lift the Atlanta Hawks to a 123-122 victory over Boston Thursday, their second win over the NBA-best Celtics in four days.
Murray scored all 11 of the Hawks points in overtime, posting a career-high of 44 to help the Hawks maintain their push for an Eastern Conference play-in berth.
The Celtics, with a league-best record of 57-16, are already assured of top seed in the East, but they’ve dropped two games this week in Atlanta, where the Hawks erased a 30-point deficit to triumph on Monday.
The rematch was a tense back-and-forth battle that featured 41 lead changes — neither team leading by more than eight points.
Boston star Jaylen Brown’s pull-up jumper put the Celtics up 122-121 with 6.6 seconds left in overtime.
Murray responded with his basket over Jrue Holiday.
“That’s the best team in the league — we competed,” Murray said of a Hawks team coming off a 120-106 victory over Portland on Wednesday. “We didn’t use being tired, a back-to-back, as an excuse.
“We came out and competed, and these are games I want to be a part of.”
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 24 points and De’Andre Hunter added 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Hawks, who won their fourth straight game.
Jayson Tatum led Boston with 31 points and 13 rebounds but missed a potential game-winning three-pointer in the final second of regulation.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points and Brown finished with 18.
But the hustling Hawks out-rebounded the Celtics 53-43 and had 28 second-chance points to Boston’s 11.
“We’re fighting for a play-in/playoff spot,” Murray said of the Hawks team currently holding down 10th place — and the final play-in spot. “We all showed up.”
In New Orleans, Zion Williamson scored 28 points and CJ McCollum added 25 to lead the Pelicans to a 107-100 victory over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Jonas Valanciunas notched his 32nd double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds for New Orleans.
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Antetokounmpo scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for Milwaukee, but the Bucks dropped their second straight, unable to bounce back after a stunning overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
The Pelicans led by as many as 18 in the first half but the Bucks had cut the deficit to five with 3:27 left to play.
New Orleans kept attacking and closed it out from the foul line, Williamson making five free throws in the waning minutes.
“Z’s been amazing, night-in, night-out,” said Pelicans coach Willie Green. “He’s putting the team on his shoulders.”
The Pelicans pulled off the victory despite a poor shooting night. They made just 36 of their 91 attempts from the floor and just eight of 32 from three-point range.
“That was a gutsy win on our home floor,” Green said. “It was a good defensive performance by us. We played with force from start to finish.
“Even when we didn’t hit shots we still continued to make winning plays.”
Trailblazers: Menhat Helmy bridges worlds through art
- The final part of this year’s series highlighting pioneering female artists from the Arab world in honor of Women’s History Month
DUBAI: From scenes of local village life to images inspired by the cosmos, the late Egyptian modern artist Menhat Helmy’s oeuvre was a varied one.
Helmy was born in Cairo in 1925 into a large family of seven sisters and two brothers. She died in May 2004.
One relative who remembers her fondly is her eldest grandson, Canada-based journalist Karim Zidan, who grew up with her paintings hanging in his family’s house.
“Though she passed away when I was 12 years old, I still have vivid memories of her and our interactions. I remember her helping me build Lego sets and complete jigsaw puzzles,” Zidan, who manages Helmy’s estate, tells Arab News.
Long before she became a grandmother, Menhat was a bright young woman who studied at the Egyptian capital’s High Institute of Pedagogic Studies for Art in the 1940s. Next came a great opportunity to study at the famed Slade School of Fine Arts in London, during the 1950s, reportedly making her only the second Egyptian woman to study there.
“London played a pivotal role in her career,” notes Zidan. “It was during her time at the Slade School of Fine Arts that she discovered printmaking, the art form that would come to define her work and legacy. My grandmother produced her first etchings at the school.”
The 1970s saw Helmy delve into abstraction, as in her 1973 masterpiece “Space Exploration.”
“During this time, my grandmother was fascinated with space and technological developments such as the computer,” explains Zidan. “She sought to depict her newfound fascinations in her work, but the geometric synergy in it is rooted in her appreciation for Islamic art. All of this is clearly represented in ‘Space Exploration,’ which can be viewed as a depiction of the night sky; constellations in perfect formation; a universe in flux; or even electrons flowing through a circuit board.”
Today, Helmy’s artworks can be found in the UAE’s Barjeel Art Foundation, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts and the UCL Art Museum in London.
“The variety of her oeuvre, coupled with the sheer complexity and avant-garde nature of the work, is precisely what makes her such a pioneering figure in modern Egyptian art,” Zidan concludes.
Ohtani wins in Dodgers home debut, Rangers open Major League Baseball title defense with victory
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts liked what he saw from the leadoff trio of Betts, Ohtani and Freeman
- Juan Soto made a spectacular New York Yankees debut, throwing out Houston’s Mauricio Dubon for the second out of the ninth inning to deny Astros a tying run
LOS ANGELES: Japanese star Shohei Ohtani made a triumphant Los Angeles Dodgers home debut on Thursday, getting help from fellow Most Valuable Player teammates in a 7-1 rout of St. Louis.
Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts bashed a solo home run in the third inning and scored three times, Freddie Freeman homered and drove in three runs and Ohtani went 2-for-3 and scored on Freeman’s homer in the third to spark the Dodgers.
“I was the only guy who couldn’t hit a homer, but overall I thought I had a pretty good game,” Ohtani said. “Overall, I had quality at-bats.”
Tyler Glasnow struck out five while allowing only one run on two hits over six innings to earn the victory for Los Angeles, whose fans cheered Ohtani in his first home game since signing a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers following six years with the Los Angeles Angels.
“I’m very grateful... being able to be received by the Dodger fans,” Ohtani said. “Obviously, I’ve been here before, as a visiting player, so it was a little intimidating. But I’m very grateful for the fans — and there are a lot of them.”
Ohtani is part of a Major League Baseball investigation looking into alleged illegal gambling activity by his former translator, but controversy took a back seat to success as the US national pastime enjoyed the start of another campaign.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts liked what he saw from the leadoff trio of Betts, Ohtani and Freeman — all former MVPs producing a furious top of the batting lineup for his club.
“Mookie does what Mookie does, still swinging a hot bat and Shohei put on a nice show,” Roberts said. “I think in any discussion you can argue that they’re the best hitters in baseball.
“We’re fortunate to have three of ‘em at the top of the order. Certainly a first word that comes to mind is ‘daunting’ for me.”
Corbin Burnes struck out 11 batters, a record for any pitcher in his Baltimore debut, to spark the Orioles to an 11-3 home rout of the Los Angeles Angels.
Angels slugger Mike Trout smashed the first home run of the MLB season in the first inning off Burnes, who retired every other hitter he faced.
Burnes had the second-most strikeouts in an opener in the club’s 70-year history, the most since Dave McNally’s 13 in 1970.
The Orioles held a moment of silence for six workers killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge — less than 10 miles from Camden Yards ballpark — collapsed on Tuesday after a support was struck by a cargo ship.
A flag was also lowered in the ceremony, which came before a sellout crowd of 45,000 fans that included new team owner David Rubenstein.
Juan Soto made a spectacular New York Yankees debut, throwing out Houston’s Mauricio Dubon from right field for the second out of the ninth inning to deny the Astros a tying run and a preserve a 5-4 victory for the visiting Yankees.
Soto also ignited New York’s rally from a 4-0 deficit with a run-scoring single in the fifth, his first hit in Yankees pinstripes.
The World Series champion Texas Rangers celebrated last season’s success with fans, displaying the Commissioner’s Trophy before the game.
The evening was capped by a bases-loaded run-scoring single from catcher Jonah Heim in the 10th inning that sealed a 4-3 victory for Texas over the Chicago Cubs.
San Diego’s Yu Darvish struck out seven and scattered five hits over five innings but it was Japanese countryman Yuki Matsui who got the win with 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief in the Padres 6-4 home win over San Francisco.
Cincinnati’s Nick Martini smashed a three-run homer and a two-run homer while Frankie Montas struck out four and scattered four hits over six scoreless innings as the Reds ripped visiting Washington 8-2.
Opening Day festivities in Miami included a ceremonial first pitch from Brazilian footballer Neymar before the Marlins’ home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Twelve innings later, Jared Triolo’s flare single scored Ke’Bryan Hayes for what proved to be the winning run in the Pirates’ 6-5 victory extra-innings victory.
Pakistan PM says modernizing revenue collection system to revive frail economy
- Pakistan is currently making efforts to introduce economic reforms under an IMF program that helped it avert a default last year
- Islamabad has expressed interest in a new program, expected to come with fiscal tightening measures, including increase in revenue
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday his government was working to modernize the country’s revenue collection system to revive the frail $350 billion South Asian economy, describing it as “top priority” of his administration.
Pakistan, which has been facing an economic meltdown, is making efforts to introduce structural reforms under a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program that helped it avert a sovereign default last year.
The country this month cleared second and final review of its $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program which would pave the way for the release of $1.1 billion after helping Islamabad avert a default in last June.
Islamabad has expressed its interest in securing a new loan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with the IMF, which is expected to come with fiscal tightening measures, including an increase in revenue.
“A plan is underway to modernize revenue collection system,” PM Sharif was quoted as saying by the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster.
“The Federal Board of Revenue is being fully digitized and efforts are afoot to increase the tax base.”
He said a “whole-of-government approach” was being adopted to check power theft that was worth billions of rupees, according to the report.
Privatization of government-owned enterprises, institutional reforms, internal and external investment and austerity were also the government’s priorities in this regard, he added.
Thailand’s Pajaree storms to top of crowded LPGA leaderboard in Arizona
- Pajaree: It was a great day out there. I actually was in the zone
- Vu, who withdrew from two tournaments on the LPGA’s recent Asian swing with back trouble, was delighted to find herself in contention
LOS ANGELES: Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn birdied her last five holes in a 9-under par 63 on Thursday to break free atop a log-jammed leaderboard after the first round of the LPGA Ford Championship in Gilbert, Arizona.
With five players in the clubhouse on 8-under, Pajaree rolled in a birdie putt at her final hole, the ninth to seize a one-shot lead over world No. 2 Lilia Vu of the US, Spaniards Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Munoz, Germany’s Isi Gabsa and Australian Gabriela Ruffels.
“It was a great day out there,” said Pajaree, who claimed the most recent of her two LPGA titles at last year’s LPGA Match-Play. “I actually was in the zone. I didn’t realize that I holed my fifth birdie in a row on the ninth green. But it was a great day.”
Pajaree, who matched her career low round on the LPGA tour, said she knew she had the makings of a good round after her third birdie of the day at the 18th.
“Bogey-free, came out with three-under par going into the back nine. I played some really good shots today,” she said. “Hit a lot of good drivers off the tee and gave me a lot of benefit just going into the green with short irons.
“I was able to just hit some good long irons in as well, so that helped,” she added.
Vu, who withdrew from two tournaments on the LPGA’s recent Asian swing with back trouble, was delighted to find herself in contention.
“Today, honestly, my only goal was to hit the ball solid,” she said. “It’s been rough the past couple weeks with how my body is doing and just struggling with a back injury.
“But I’m almost 100 percent, so it was really fun to play without pain today and focus on where I wanted to hit the ball instead of bracing for pain.”
Vu had nine birdies with one bogey, joining the group on eight under with a birdie at the 18th.
“I was really excited to pull off shots that I saw in my head,” Vu said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been able to hit a shot that I see, so I think it was super fun to be like, OK, I can hit a nice little draw here. Ends up maybe like 10, 15 feet, and go and try and make it.”
Ciganda and Gabsa both had eight birdies without a bogey, while Ruffels and Munoz each had an eagle on the way to 64 at the Seville Golf and Country Club.
French star Celine Boutier, who won the LPGA’s most recent event in Arizona when she won at Superstition Mountain last year, was two off the lead on 65, where she was joined by South Korean Kim Hyo-joo.
Another 11 players were a further stroke back on 66. That group included American Nelly Korda, who supplanted Vu as No. 1 in the world with her victory in the Seri Pak Championship on Sunday — Korda’s second victory in as many starts this season.