WASHINGTON: The World Bank yesterday approved a controversial project to link the Ethiopian and Kenyan electricity grids, which has been criticized by lobby groups because of environmental and human rights concerns.

The World Bank board gave the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) transmission line the green light, saying it would reduce costs, promote renewable energy sources and improve cooperation in East Africa.

The line is part of a nearly $1.3 billion project to link energy-producing Ethiopia with Kenya—where as many as 80 percent of the population is without power.

The World Bank is stumping up a loan of around $684 million for the project.

On the eve of the World Bank decision, advocacy group Human Rights Watch urged the bank president Jim Yong Kim to hold fire.

“The World Bank needs to rigorously apply its social and environmental safeguards,” a letter to Kim stated.

“Human Rights Watch has very serious concerns that the World Bank has failed to do so as the project currently stands.”

HRW said the dam that will be the likely source of the power in Ethiopia—which is not funded by the bank—could cause serious environmental damage to Lake Turkana, a UNESCO world heritage site.

HRW said the dam project has also resulted in a swathe of “abusive involuntary resettlement” of local groups.

While the World Bank says that more than 5,000 people will be directly affected by the power project, it stresses the dam project is not directly linked and energy will come from a large number of existing and future power plants in Ethiopia.

Human Rights Watch has been vocal in its criticism of the Ethiopian government for its policy of “villagization,” which it claims has resulted in a wave of forced relocations.

The transmission project is part of a broader plan to link the electricity grids of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, spurring growth and saving East African nations around $1 billion a year in energy costs.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 14th July 2012