By Tedla Asfaw
The Koka Lake I know has turned green thanks to the chemicals damped into the lake. Fertilizers, Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus heavily used to grow commercial flowers and the untreated water from factories surrounding Addis Ababa are the main causes. The less than thirty minutes video on Al Jazeera, “People and Power and Green Lake,” aired on Feb 21 is now posted on EthiopianReview.com and is a must see, what I call another terror by regime of Tigray People Liberation Front ({www:Woyanne}) in Ethiopia — an environmental terror that feeds the algae while killing our people.
The carcinogen that is now contaminating Lake Koka is killing children. That was not the case with the Koka I know more than twenty years ago. Al Jazeera billed the program as a cost of the heavy growth of Addis Ababa and its surroundings and avoid to blame the government that ownes most of the these polluting industries and flower farms.
Except one European owner of the flower farm around Lake Ziway, far from the Green Lake of Koka, no owner comes in public to be interviewed. The Ethiopian tyrant, while was addressing the Youth in Addis Ababa few weeks ago, there was one question of water related hazard for which he blames the hide industry and that was a one minute question and answer and so much for the concern of the government.
Ethiopia has no government that is accountable for the health and the safety of its citizens and that is the bottom line. Human lives are secondary and Al Jazeera, if it zoomed its lenses, could have shown children, young and elderly with no home begging in the surrounding government owned high rises.
The sad thing is foreign partners of this regime do also miss the Green Lake. Haven’t they seen or took pictures on their cell phone on their weekend driving to Sodere? Polluted rivers in Europe and USA are now back to life supporting fish and become a recreational area after years of toxic damping and poor Ethiopia is encouraged to destroy its water resources by pumping loans for a regime that is making fast money at the expense of poor Ethiopian farmers ? Why are we not learning from other countries or we have to first grow by destroying our ecosystem and then start cleaning the mess ?
In a country where there is not any law that protects the public, it might be considered a luxury to look for environmental law. However, this is a criminal case where the harm is done to our people purposely and the Meles regime officials have to be held accountable.
8 thoughts on “The destruction of Ethiopia’s Lake Koka”
When that great Emperor Haile Selassie died, the beauties of Ethiopia also died with him; the beauties of Ethiopia so far have been its lakes, rivers, mountains, hills, valleys, trees, numerous colorful birds and insects.
The greedy regime of Meles Seitanawi has no respect at all for the beauties of Ethiopia – its people and its history, its serene environment and its imposing churches. Meles, Azeb, Aba Paulos, and their collaborators are responsible for rendering certain areas of Ethiopia inhabitable, its water undrinkable, its soil unusable, and its people unfriendly to each other because Meles Seitanawi wants them to be that way: one tribe against the other tribe, one province above the other, and one fake patriarch against the legitimate one. Therefore, the division among the Ethiopian people and the destruction of the environment will continue until the Meles regime lasts.
የወያነ ፍላጎት ገንዘብ መስረቅና መዝረፍ ነው ለነሱ ሰው ይኑር አይኑር ደንታ የላቸውም ለመጪው ትውልድም አያስቡም መሬቱን ለውጭ ሰዎች ቸርችረው ለራሳቸው ጥቅም ገንዘብ ማካበት ነው የውጭ ኢንቨስተሮች እንደዚሁ ባላገሩ ወይም መንግስት ካላሰበ እነሱ ያስባሉ ማለት ዘበት ነው ስለዚህ ኢትዮጵያዊ ሁሉ ይህን አረመኔ ለማስወገድ መተባበር አለበት
Why would the Weyanes and their cohorts care about the well being of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people? Remember, these guys are looking for fast buck. They need to accumulate enough wealth to help them survive as “Refugees” in some foreign land like our Mengistu is doing. So, they will pollute, the water, the air, the land and anything in between to amass the mighty Dollar or equally mighty Euro. Pound Sterling will do just fine as well! The good thing is their days are ticking like a powerful time bomb and will obliterate them from the face of Ethiopia! Mark my words…
Meles the leader of criminal organization weyane who is intended to destroy Ethiopia as a viable nation that will benefit all its nationals regardless their ethnicity or religion will do anything that will bleed the country and fill up his elite tigrayan group with unimaginable us dollars.Meles”s evil intentions of destroying anyone who challenges his power requires him to accumulate a lot of cash so that he can pay his miltias from all ethiopian ethnic groups,so that this mercenay parties can control their own ethnic opposition groups.For those who doubt that weyane long term aim is destroying ethiopia and accumulate a lot of wealth in cash not in assets for the day of reckoning that way they will be ready to defend their criminal organization in the hills of dedebit.Ethiopia should harvest more teff to feed her children not flowers to young lovers in Europe or America.
When was the last time Ato Tedla saw the lake? 18 years ago. So how is he accusing the government of Meles Zenawi when he has noot been under Meles’s reign? I know our lakes are going through some unfortunate moments right now and our people are going through something worse. The government as well as the doom sayers such as Ato Tedla Asfaw are responsible. I am against Ato Tedla for several reasons and one of the main one is his negativism without offering alternative solution. He claims to be an expert in medicine, politics, sociology even sport. Ato Tedla, Give us a break. We hate the government of Meles Zenawi but we are not damn, to be lectured by you on every thing.
Why are we blaming Meles? We all know Meles doesn’t care about Ethiopia and yet we tend to be surprised with this kind of news. The Diaspora will be complaining on the Internet but goes back to Ethiopia and checks for their share of wealth they can looth along side of Meles.
What’s the role of the Environment Authority led by Dr.Tewolde Gebre Eigzibher? Is that not his duty to take precautionary measure before lakes or otherwise are polluted? The doctor and his subordinates should be held responsible.They should resign very immediately and leave the office for competent and considerate intellectuals.
the saddest thing ever!!!
the Ethiopian regime is systematically wiping out our people and their livelihoods. this has got to be stopped by any means necessary! i blame no one else but the senseless, blood sucking TPLF regime. TPLF is the soul responsible organization for the killings of our people and distraction of our beautiful land.
may Allah be with our innocent people and look after out natural resource. there will come a day when TPLF will pay for this!