In early 1999, Friends of the Earth, an environmental NGO, contacted the World Bank and the Norwegian, Swedish, and German international development organizations and called upon these organizations to address the environmental impacts arising from the Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project and the threats that the hydropower project posed to the recently discovered Kihansi Spray Toad. The World Bank agreed to conduct a detailed review of the environmental impacts of the Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project. The Swedish and Norwegian development agencies requested that the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO), the project client, conduct a comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment of the project and develop an environmental mitigation plan. The discovery of the Kihansi Spray Toad represented a challenge also for the government of Tanzania because the government had ratified in 1996 the International Convention on Biological Diversity which commits nation states to conserving their biological diversity.