July 23, 2010 -- The European Investment Bank said it has stopped funding environmental and social impact studies for the Gibe III hydroelectric dam project in Ethiopia, according Businessweek news report.

The EIB stopped funding the studies due to the alternative financing and not because of the “results of these preliminary studies,” it said.

A Kenyan conservation organization, Friends of Lake Turkana, on June 14 filed a court case against the government and Kenya Power & Lighting Ltd., arguing that environmental and social concerns had been disregarded when they decided to buy power from Gibe III.

Other conservation groups, including London-based Survival International and International Rivers, based in California, have called on the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other financiers not to fund the 1.5 billion-euro ($1.95 billion) Gibe III project.

Source: Businessweek