When The Water Ends: Africa’s Climate Conflicts

Nomadic herdsmen in Kenya and Ethiopia struggle, and fight, over water resources as the climate changes and the land dries out.

Meanwhile, making a bad situation a lot worse, Ethiopia is building what will be the largest hydro-electric dam in Africa, the Gibe III, which will seriously exacerbate problems for these same subsistence tribes.

"Gibe III is the most destructive dam under construction in Africa. The project will condemn half a million of the region’s most vulnerable people to hunger and conflict," said Terri Hathaway, director of International Rivers’ Africa programme. — BBC

Problems arose around financial difficulties, lack of transparency, and the environmental and social impact assessment, which was not published until two years after construction began. The assessment suggested that the project would cause minimal problems environmentally and socially, however there are a large number of critics who consider it to be flawed both in terms of thoroughness and objectivity. Among these critics is the African Resources Working Group who released statements saying that "The quantitative [and qualitative] data included in virtually all major sections of the report were clearly selected for their consistence with the predetermined objective of validating the completion of the Gibe III hydro-dam" and that despite claims made by the government to the contrary, the dam would "produce a broad range of negative effects, some of which would be catastrophic." — Wikipedia