Introduction

The numbers of people affected by Development-Induced Displacement (DID) have been rising steadily, and Dam-Induced Displacement is an important part of this, with effects that have long been studied, particularly in Africa with the Kariba Dam (Colson 1971; Scudder 1996; Cernea 2000). In Ethiopia people are internally displaced regularly for various reasons but the literature has been dominated by studies dealing with resettlement and villagization. The first major dam-induced displacement in Ethiopia resulted from the construction of the Gilgel Gibe dam. The project was conceived during the late imperial period, after the Koka dam built in the late 1950s (S. Pankhurst 1958) was found to be insufficient to meet the country's growing electricity needs and was closed down. However, only a reconnaissance report had been produced by the time of the revolution in 1974. During the Derg period several feasibility studies were undertaken and construction and relocation of some 10,000 people began in 1985 but was interrupted and only resumed in 1996 after the EPRDF took power. The EPRDF government, with the support of the World Bank, embarked on the Gilgel Gibe Project (GGP), the second largest Bank-supported resettlement operation in Africa at that time.