Failure of abay dam fund raising.

By Adugna Dinka

Abay dam or Millennium Hydropower Plant as they call it is a hydropower plant that is under construction by the TPLF government of Ethiopia. It is said to generate 5250 MW of electricity and the purpose of the construction is said to cover the energy demand of the empire as well as for export.

The cost of the dam is about 80 billion birr or about 4.76 billion dollar. The government is said to fund the project locally by selling bonds partly and some international partners. They also say that the government is ready to fund the project even if a loan is not available internationally. Due to this it appears as if the TPLF officials are running a marathon to collect money to cover the project. They are trying to co-ordinate fund raising meetings all across the world from Ethiopian diaspora. But the TPLF official’s assumption of collecting money from diaspora appears to be a failure.

This is due to the human right record of the TPLF government. Most of the diaspora communities of Ethiopia are those who were chased away by the weyane government or clearly aware of what the government is doing to any opposition group in the country. The TPLF government of Ethiopia is harassing and imprisoning any opposition group by categorizing them as a terrorist, even to a level that journalists cannot dare to report about them.

The recent fund raising activities of TPLF officials in Norway both at Stavanger and Oslo ended a failure. This is due to an effective protest of Oromo diaspora in Norway and others against the fund raising. It is also said that the failure of the fund raising program is everywhere. So, the success of abay dam is yet to be seen without a fair human right record at home. 

by Adugna Dinka (re_appear1@yahoo.co.uk)