For example, he said, Kenya Electricity Transmission Co. (KETRACO), which is constructing an 1,100-km, 500-Kv DC transmission line to transfer electricity from Gibe III to Kenya, had commissioned a study on the impacts of Gibe III on Lake Turkana “and then canceled the final stakeholder workshop and did not release the report for public scrutiny.”

“The findings of that KETRACO study would no doubt reinforce complaints made by lobbyists [such as] Friends of Lake Turkana against the Ethiopia-Kenya power line being financed by World Bank, African Development Bank and partners,” he said.

The bank approved a $684-million loan for the construction of the Eastern Electricity Highway Project to finance a 500-kilovolt, DC transmission line between Wolayta-Sodo substation in Ethiopia and the Suswa substation in Kenya.

Avery said questions are being raised as to “how the World Bank and its partners were able to authorize funding for the Kenya-Ethiopia power line when it is abundantly clear that the power line is connecting to the terminus of the Gibe III power lines and when it is abundantly clear that the social impacts of the implementation of Gibe III and the irrigation schemes would trigger the World Bank's own safeguard policies?

“It is futile to pretend the power line is an independent project. It can reasonably be assumed that this 'blinkered behavior' has been deliberately adopted, as, otherwise, the bank's safeguard policies would be triggered and that would frustrate the bank's investment ambitions for this project,” Avery said.

The bank had earlier abandoned a feasibility study on the dam, saying there was no competitive bidding for the main project contractor.

Other financiers previously involved in the controversial project are the European Investment Bank, which funded the economic, financial and technical studies. EIB stopped midway in funding the ESIA, saying alternative funding had been secured. Another former backer, the Export-Import Bank of China, is funding the transmission line from Gibe III to Addis Ababa under a contract awarded to Chinese firm Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. Ltd.

Avery said the extent of the irrigation developments in the lower Omo River “was a surprise as no one anticipated the conversion of large areas of the Lower Omo national parks into sugar plantations. This drastic abandonment of that country's natural heritage was never envisaged in the Omo Basin's master plan, and the decision to do so strikes me as misguided.”

The Omo Basin master plan mentions the impact of the Gibe III on Lake Turkana, including damage to the lake's fisheries, but does not include additional information on the project’s effects beyond the Ethiopia-Kenya border.

Avery said, since the project is now almost complete, the only mitigation measure that can compensate removing all the water from the river is to scale down the irrigated area. It is essential to study the lake ecology and assess the economic value of the lake's ecosystems service provision.