**A group of international campaigners has launched an online petition against Ethiopia’s huge Gibe III dam project.**The group wants to put pressure on Western donors and banks not to fund the dam, saying it would destroy the livelihoods of some 500,000 people.
The dam is on the Omo River, which flows from southern Ethiopia into Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.
Ethiopia’s government says the dam is needed to generate enough electricity for its population and to sell abroad.
Construction work is under way on the dam, which would be Africa’s second largest hydro-electric dam, providing some 1,800 megawatts of electricity.
But one of the groups, International Rivers, says the government still needs about $1.4bn (£930m) to finish it.
“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.
The dam would flood a huge area, creating a 150km-long lake and preventing people from planting their crops on the river’s flood plains, as they have done for many generations.
Campaigners also fear that the dam would reduce the flow of water into Lake Turkana, which some 300,000 people depend on.
However, Ethiopia’s government disputes that the overall amount of water would change - they say it would just be a more regular flow throughout the year.