[Debate] (Fwd) Kenyan wins Goldman award for fighting Ethiopian dam

Tue Apr 17 18:17:48 BST 2012

  Goldman Prize for Kenyan River Activist Ikal Angelei

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 12:00am
By:
Peter Bosshard
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/images/Ikal%20wins%20Goldman%20Prize.jpg> 

Ikal Angelei, the founder of Friends of Lake Turkana 
<http://www.friendsoflaketurkana.org/> in Kenya, receives the 
prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize <http://www.goldmanprize.org/> 
in San Francisco today. The award will honor an activist who is 
defending the interests of 500,000 poor indigenous people against a 
destructive hydropower dam, and has successfully taken on many of the 
world's biggest dam builders and financiers.

Ikal Angelei grew up on the shores of Lake Turkana 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_turkana>, the world's biggest desert 
lake. This lifeline of Northwestern Kenya is under threat from the giant 
Gibe III Dam 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/africa/gibe-3-dam-ethiopia>, 
currently under construction on the lake's main water source, the Omo 
River in Ethiopia. When she learned about this threat, Ikal founded 
Friends of Lake Turkana with a few friends in 2007. Working together 
with partners around the world, she started an international campaign to 
stop the mega-dam which threatens her people's livelihoods.

Ikal and her friends carried out research on the $1.7 billion project, 
educated the local communities and mobilized them for creative protests. 
They informed international civil society groups, journalists and 
scientists about their struggle. They issued a complaint with the 
African Development Bank 
<http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Generic-Documents/Report%20of%20the%20Chairperson%20of%20the%20IRM%20Roster%20%28English%202010%2010%2020%29_01.pdf>, 
which considered funding the Gibe III Dam, and the World Heritage Center 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6772>, which is charged with 
safeguarding Lake Turkana's universal ecological value. They mobilized 
national parliamentarians 
<http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2011/08/mps-join-opposition-to-ethiopian-dam/>, 
and took the Kenyan government to court for failing to defend local 
people's interests. (The case is still pending.)

World traveler Ikal Angelei 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/images/Ikal%20the%20world%20traveler.jpg>

World traveler Ikal Angelei

During the past five years, no obstacle was too big and no place too far 
for Ikal Angelei's determined campaign. The young activist, who had 
never left Kenya before launching her campaign, traveled to Dakar, 
Prague and Washington to crash the meetings of international financiers. 
She knocked at the doors of government agencies and banks from Rome to 
Beijing. She drummed up support for her cause at international civil 
society meetings from Istanbul to the small Mexican town of Temacapulin 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/5087>.

Ikal and her friends did not lose the ground under their feet during 
their high-profile campaign. In between meetings and travels, they 
frequently visit local communities, where they support basic needs with 
a school and a small maternity clinic. They educate villagers about the 
threat they face and the campaign they have waged. And they try to 
mediate the bitter conflicts 
<http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/6879948.html> 
between different indigenous groups over dwindling resources. These 
conflicts have already claimed hundreds of lives, and will escalate if 
the Omo River's flow is dammed for power generation and diverted for 
sugar plantations <http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6823>.

Ikal with a farmer at Nakechichok 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/images/Ikal%20at%20Nakechikot.jpg>

Ikal with a farmer at Nakechichok

I have had the privilege of working with Ikal Angelei throughout her 
campaign. Ikal has the authority of an activist who speaks from her 
heart, is rooted in her local community, and has put her own life on the 
line. Her opponents had to learn that she cannot be silenced by threats 
and bribe offers. So far, Ikal's determination has only been matched by 
the ruthlessness of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meles_Zenawi>, for whom the livelihoods of 
500,000 poor people are small change. I am convinced that if she had the 
chance to meet him personally, Ikal would also stare down the Ethiopian 
strongman.

Thanks to Friends of Lake Turkana's campaign, the African Development 
Bank did not fund the Gibe III Dam in spite of strong Ethiopian 
pressure. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank had to 
recognize that the scheme would violate their social and environmental 
safeguard policies. An Italian government financier and a big Wall 
Street bank also stayed out of the project. Construction of the Gibe III 
Project has been delayed by several years, and the dam is currently 
about half-completed.

Not deterred by threats and challenges 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/images/Ikal%20with%20AK47.jpg>

Not deterred by threats and challenges

So far only ICBC, a large commercial bank from China, has approved a 
$500 million loan 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/2010-9-16/chinese-loan-underwrites-lake-turkana-destruction> 
for the dam's equipment in July 2010. Ikal has held the bank to account 
for its destructive project in the international media 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20067470-503543.html>, and will 
continue to do so. Even in China, ICBC's decision is now being 
considered a case of lacking corporate social responsibility. A few 
weeks ago, the Chinese government directed its banks to align overseas 
projects with "international best practices" on social and environmental 
risks.

In May the World Bank, which stayed out of the Gibe III Dam the first 
time around, will decide whether to fund a transmission line that would 
export the project's electricity with a credit of $676 million 
<http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P126579/regional-eastern-africa-power-pool-project-apl1?lang=en>. 
If a project is too destructive for direct support, the Bank should not 
fund it through the backdoor of a transmission line either. The Goldman 
Prize <http://www.goldmanprize.org/>, which is awarded today, will give 
Ikal Angelei another platform from which she can defend her people's 
livelihoods against such destructive practices. Please join me in 
congratulating Ikal, and in telling funders to stay out of the Gibe III 
Project <http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/7360>.

Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers. He blogs 
at www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/peter-bosshard 
<http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/peter-bosshard> and tweets 
at www.twitter.com/PeterBosshard <http://www.twitter.com/PeterBosshard>.

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