Western disturbance

A group of international campaigners has launched an online petition against Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam. The group wants to pressure Western donors and banks not to fund the dam, saying it would destroy the means of living of 500,000 people.

Ethiopia’s government says the dam is needed to generate enough electricity for its population and to sell abroad. It has called the campaign, online at www.stopgibe3.org, the handiwork of patronizing people in the West.

But Teri Hathaway, who heads the non-profit International Rivers’ Africa Programme, said the dam would “flood a large area, creating a 150km-long lake and prevent people from planting crops on the river’s floodplains.”