African Development Strategies

Year 10 Geography

African Development Strategies

1.                                                                       Map of Africa[pic 1][pic 2]

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                              Source: http://www.mongabay.com                

2. Human settlements within Ethiopia tend to be close to water sources such as rivers and lakes. Seven of the nine major towns (population of 100,000+) are within 200km of some form of water source. The majority of settlements are rather far away from the country’s main forest areas, which are towards the south, with the exception of the town Jima. All the towns are also built rather far away from mountains at lower altitudes. Eight of the nine major towns are built right next to a major road that goes around all of Africa with the town of Jima once again being the only exception.

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5. Ethiopia is currently a developing country  which is unlikely to become regarded as a developed country anytime soon. The country has an extremely low GNI per capita that is approximately 200 times lower than that of Australia’s. It is currently sitting at 280 US dollars per capita which has risen by an average of 30 US dollars every year. The countries unemployment rate jumped from 5.4% in 2005 to 17.00% in 2006. During that time Ethiopia became involved in Somalia’s civil war whilst going through an election in which there was much civil strife. There were 200 casualties, 763 injuries and 60,000 arrests made during the elections, whilst it was unclear how many casualties there were in the Somalian war. Ethiopia’s poor health system has been improving gradually over the past few years with the infant mortality rate declining at a steady but slow rate. Although small improvements are being made it will take approximately 20 years for Ethiopia to have its infant mortality rate as low as most developed countries. Living conditions in Ethiopia have not improved since 2005 yet they have not become worse, reflected by the country’s average life expectancy which has not made huge changes. Ethiopia’s unlikelihood to become a developed country anytime soon is mainly reflected in its CO2 emissions and forested areas. A country that is going through major development tends to have huge increases in CO2 emissions whilst having huge decreases in forested areas. This is because a developing country requires a large amount of enery consumption in order to compete with the rest of the world industrially, whilst increasing deforestation to accomodate likely increases in demand for land.

6. Gibe III Dam Project[pic 13]

The Gibe III project was undertaken by Salini Costruttori of Italy in 2006 and is scheduled for completion in December 2013. The dam is currently 35% complete and estimated to cost 1.55billion Euros. The Gibe III dam is expected to generate 1870 megawatts of electricity with half of it being exported to Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti. It will also be able to provide flood protection and reduce the impact of droughts.

7. The government and Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is set to benefit from the Gibe III dam project. They will be using the dam to supply neighbouring countries with approximately 900 megawatts of electricity. The nearby local population might also benefit from the Gibe III dam as it is supposedly able to protect them from floods and reduce the impact of droughts. The benefit of reduction of drought impact is rather controversial as there are no concrete plans for irrigation and drinking water supply, meaning that even if the dam can store enough water for the population it will be unable to be distributed.