Dam Discourse I: Why Build Dams?
Construction work on the GERD ( Source ) The question must be asked... why are dams such a popular modernisation intervention in Africa? Alongside the GERD, there has been a resurgence of dam construction across the African continent . Dams were popular development solution throughout the 20th Century, bringing the African continent to have the world's largest capacity of large dams. In today's environmental discourse, there is a now a renewed interest from the World Bank to expand lending for hydropower projects , seeing dams as a balance between low-carbon technology and meeting development needs around energy. It is the particular belief from development agencies that energy is central to countries development needs with hydropower percieved to have considerable potential of providing clean, cheap, and most importantly, dependable electricity to hundreds of millions of people who do not yet have it. 60 million Ethiopians alone lack direct access to electricity , which is