Addis Ababa, July 11 (WIC) –Work on May Day dam, which is part of the Welkait Sugar Development Project, is now 9.5 percent complete, according to the contractor.
Welkait Sugar Development Project is one of the sugar development projects planned to be executed within the five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of Ethiopia.
The project will have one sugar factory with a crushing capacity of 10,000 tcd and 25,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation.
May Day dam is being built on Zarema River in Welkait Woreda, Tigray State, on 36 hectares of land by Sur Construction, a domestic construction company.
Engineer Araya Girmay, head of the dam’s construction, told WIC that his company has carried out 9.5 percent of the construction of the dam during the past five months.
He said the dam being built at a cost of 4.2 billion birr will be finalized within the coming three years.
Basic foundation works, river diversion, trench and dam seat, including central foundation works have been completed, Eng.Araya pointed out.
He said the dam will have a width of 720 meters with height of 143 meters. It creates artificial lake that collects 3.5 billion cubic meters of water when completed, he added.
The Welkait Sugar Development Project is expected to consume over 8 billion birr
According to Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, efforts are underway to raise the current sugar production in the country from the current around 300,000 tons to 2.25 million tons per year within the five-year GTP.
Hence, in order to attain the target nine new sugar factories will be built in various parties of the country. The factories will create job opportunities to more than 162,000 citizens.
This effort of the corporation will also boost the production of ethanol to 181,604 cubic meters per year, and the electric power produced through co-generation to 101MW and replaces the 137,464 cubic meters of kerosene imported from abroad.
Moreover, the effort will enable the country to produce 44, 340 cubic meters of ethanol for blending which help the country minimize the foreign currency it spends on oil import.