ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Ethiopia’s development of hydropower is at the heart of its wider policy of economic transformation and argues that the levels of ambition and the pace of change bring both opportunities and risks. Ethiopia’s construction of a new water future is long overdue. The Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) is one-half of Ethiopia’s envisaged economic transformation. The government places energy production at the heart of its GTP to diversify the economy through industrialisation and commercialised farming. To support economic development at an annual growth rate of more than 10% to which the government aspires, it is necessary to expand electric power supply at a rate of more than 14% per year. The Mekong basin is facing a wave of poorly planned and environmentally and socially devastating hydropower expansion. The key driver of change in Ethiopia is the changing international development environment.
