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Addis Ababa July 19, 2021 (Walta) – Ethiopia has made public that it has successfully completed the second filling of the Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) today in a nationally televised program.
The Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Dr. Eng. Silesh Bekele, while addressing the nation right from Guba, Benishagul- Gumuz Region of Ethiopia, said that Ethiopia has successfully filled the dam.
The minister called up on the downstream countries to make the dam an engine for regional integration.
“The rest of the world is working to discover the planet system out of the earth atmosphere while we are wrangling across a water resource meant to serve our development endeavor” he said.
The dam will not be a source of water shortage. It will serve as a water bank that saves water in the rainy season. In the age of extreme weather conditions signaling climate change, the GERD is an asset to the region, said the minister.
Dr. Eng. Sileshi also called up on lower riparian countries specifically Sudan to make the necessary preparation for risk of flooding owing to the heavy rain Ethiopia has been experiencing.
Since the dam has been filled, additional waters coming from highlands of Ethiopia will overflow the dam.
Ethiopia has been building the GERD at cost of 4.8 billion dollar by the time the project was launched a decade ago. The mega dam which is expected to power Ethiopian economy was planned to be completed within seven years. However, its progress has been hampered by embezzlement and lack of project management. That has not only delayed the project accomplishment time by years but also increased its cost by at least 450 million euro. That is without taking the opportunity cost of reaping the benefit of completing the dam on its schedule.
Following the coming to power of the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the project was resuscitated from the existential problem it has faced with.
As a result of the political intervention made almost three years ago, the project was back in track. It managed to fill the first phase filling last summer in which the dam reservoir managed to hold back 4.8 billion cubic meters of water while the now completed second filling holds 14.8 billion cubic meters.
Following the second filling, the two turbines of the dam will start power generation in a while.
The project has enormous economic and political implications for Ethiopia. Ethiopia sees the dam as indispensable to its economic development by providing almost 65 million of its citizen with electricity.
As the largest hydropower project in Africa, the GERD will produce enough electricity for domestic consumption with a sizeable amount for export as well. Politically, the project is an image of strength.
The GERD-reservoir, once it has filled, has a total water volume of 74 km3, three times the volume of Ethiopia’s largest lake, Lake Tana.
When completed, GERD will produce around 6000 megawatts of electric power, growing the country’s power generation capacity by more than double.
