Beautifying Sheger — Addis Ababa's Riverside Green Corridor, Built Top-Down

Addis Ababa's rivers, including the Sheger (Kebena) and Akaki, had long served as open sewers and waste dumps running through the fast-growing capital. In 2019 the Ethiopian Prime Minister's office launched 'Beautifying Sheger' (also called the Addis Ababa Riverside Development Project) to clean the waterways and build green public space along a planned 56km corridor from Mount Entoto to Akaki.

Phase 1, focused on a 50-hectare area north of the city towards Entoto, cost roughly 2.5 billion birr and was intended for completion within a year; the full multi-phase programme was projected at around 29 billion birr. Complementary reporting documents new walkways, cleaned river channels and public green space delivered under the project.

Independent academic and journalistic reviews found the project was designed and pushed through directly by the Prime Minister's office, sidelining Addis Ababa's own city administration, urban planners and its 2017-2027 Structure Plan, and prioritised visible 'beautification' over resident needs, including reported displacement in comparable PM-office megaprojects such as LaGare. This is a governance model that raises real replicability and accountability concerns despite the project's genuine green-space output — a case worth recording honestly alongside its physical results.

Read the full analysis: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/12/addis-ababa-riverside-project-gives-priority-development-residents/