From The "Oh, GREAT!" Dept. - Sudan Inaugurates New Massive Dam Upstream From Aswan - AFP

[hatrack]

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir inaugurated a massive hydroelectric project on Tuesday that has displaced tens of thousands of people and is the largest to be built on the Nile in 40 years. The more than two-billion-dollar (1.590-billion-euro) Chinese-engineered Merowe Dam will eventually double Sudan's power capacity to about 1,250 megawatts. Two of its 10 turbines, which were built by French group Alstom, began operations on Tuesday and Beshir has promised cuts in utility bills of 25-30 percent.

It is the biggest such project since the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt in the 1950s and was developed by China's CCMD consortium under the supervision of German group Lahmeyer.

In 2006, violent protests by villagers opposed to the dam broke out. Three people were killed and dozens injured. More than 40,000 people were forced to leave their homes to make way for the dam and the vast reservoir that will be formed behind it, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Khartoum.

The government built new villages for the displaced people in the desert, but many of those expelled from their homes refused to move into them. "There are people who lost everything," said Ali Askuri, a spokesman for the displaced people. "They live like homeless near the reservoir, and do not want to be resettled in the desert."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Sudan_inaugurates_massive_Nile_dam_999.html

[pscot]

1. I'm not so sure this is a bad thing

Forty thousand is a relatively small number of people to be displaced for a project of this size. They could be pieced off with a relatively small amount of cash if the government were willing to resort to bribery rather than flogging. The flooded area is all desert. Khartoum will get cheap, clean hydro-power. The damage to the Mediteranean has already been done by Aswan. This dam will hold some of the silt that's been piling up behind Aswan. I guess the isssue is how much Nile water will be lost to evaporation and seepage, but for a benighted place like Sudan, the dam has got to be a positive. And consider the advantages to be derived from the new crocodile fishery.

[hatrack]

2. To say nothing of the boon for bilharzia, schistosomiasis . . .

And I wonder if all possible damage has been done to the Nile delta. Given that this will be one more gigantic evaporation trap, I don't think it's going to help.

[excess_3]

3. poor Africans don't deserve to have electricity

(sarcasm)
poor Africans don't deserve to have electricity
.......................

sadly, many E/E forum paticipants
don't think that poor people
deserve to have, one or several of the following ...
electricity, meat/food, a car, CFLs