The Gibe III project, which the Ethiopian government has been constructing for the past three years, has been criticized by some environmentalists for reducing the amount of water that goes to Lake Turkana of Kenya and endangering the lives of inhabitants around the lake.

It is believed that the acceptance of the project by the Kenyan government will give an end to these environmentalists who have been trying to persuade international financiers not to give loan for Ethiopia to complete the project.

“We learned that the project will be environment friendly and Kenya welcomes Ethiopia’s multibillion dollar hydroelectric project,” said John Rao Nyaoro, Kenyan director of water resource, after visiting the project and discussing the issue with Ethiopian officials on Wednesday.

“The government of Kenya would provide unwavering support for the sustainability and feasibility of the project. The project will strengthen the economic and social ties between the two countries,” he added.

Kenyan Ambassador to Ethiopia on his part said that Ethiopia and Kenya would benefit from Gibe III project and it would further strengthen the economic ties between the two nations.

Gibe III Hydroelectric, which is estimated to cost one billion and 400,000 million Euros, power project has a capacity of generating 1870 mega watt and 6,400GWh of energy per year.

The construction commenced July 2006 following a contract agreement signed between the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and an Italian company, Salini Construction. The project, whose one-third construction work has already completed, is expected to start service by July 2013.

According to Asfaw Dingamo, water resource minister of Ethiopia, the project will ensure clean renewable power supply both for Ethiopia and Kenya while enabling to mitigate drought. The project would also enable to control flood by regulating flow of the water, he added.

Gibe III project is taking place on the trans-boundary Omo-Gibe basin, which is one of the significant surface water resources of Ethiopia. The hydroelectric potential of Ethiopia has been estimated at some 40,000MW.