Government suspends nation’s largest Turkish Industrial Zone project

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The Ethiopian government has suspended the multibillion dollar Ethio-Turkish industrial zone development project being undertaken on the outskirts of Addis Ababa near Sendafa town due a potential threat posed at the Legedadi Dam and Water Treatment Plant as a result of the construction of the industrial zone.

The Turkish construction firm and industrial zone developer, Akgün Group, signed an agreement with the Ethiopian government in 2009 that enables it to develop an international industrial zone in the Oromia Regional State near Sendafa town, 35 km north of Addis Ababa. Akgün secured one million sq. meters (100 hectares) of land from the Oromia Regional State a year ago. The total cost of the project is estimated to be 10 billion dollars and it is projected to employ one million people.
Akgün has started mobilization and conducting soil test and planned to start construction once the rainy season is over, according to Yunus Akgün, board member of Akgün Group. “Machineries and equipment are on their way to Ethiopia,” Yunus told The Reporter. However, the company was recently informed to suspend construction as the project may cause a threat to the stability of the Legedadi drinking water dam.

The Ethio-Turkish International Industrial Zone is located only five km from the Legedadi Dam and Water Treatment Plant. Reliable sources told The Reporter that officials of the Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) are very concerned about the realization of the project which is found in the catchment area of the Legedadi dam which supplies clean drinking water to 50 percent of the three million Addis Ababa residents. “The construction site is located in the Legedadi reservoir.”

Source: The Reporter