- The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, announced on Sunday that the filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile is complete.
- The massive dam is home to Africa’s biggest hydro project at 6450MW when fully commissioned.
“It is with great pleasure that I announce the successful completion of the fourth and final filling of the Renaissance Dam,” Abiy said in a message on X, formerly Twitter, which comes as negotiation between the three countries resumed August 27. There was a lot of challenge, we were many times dragged to go backwards. We had an internal challenge and external pressure. We’ve reached (this stage) by coping together with God,” he said.
“I believe that we will finish what we have planned next,” he concluded.
The project is being developed and funded by state-owned public utility enterprise Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. GERD is the biggest hydropower station in Africa and the dam itself has a surface area of 1874 km2 .The 6450MW facility comprises a concrete gravity dam on the Blue Nile River with a storage capacity of 70 billion cubic metres of water, one outdoor powerhouse on each bank of the river, three spillways, and a saddle dam.
The powerhouse on the right bank will be equipped with ten 375MW Francis turbine generator sets while the left bank powerhouse will have six similar capacity turbine generators. Each turbine will be driven by the water flow through an 8m-diametre, 180m-long penstock.
Ethiopia has been building the dam since 2010, leading to tensions with Egypt and Sudan. The contention surrounds Sudan and Egypt’s fears that the $4 billion dam could lead to water shortages in their own territories.
The political row has threatened to get out of hand on occasion but now Egypt and Ethiopia haves have finally agreed to conclude “a mutually acceptable agreement” within four months. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
