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)
