Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation said on Monday that 82 percent of Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam has been completed.
Budget allocated for that project is estimated at 1.5 billion Euros.
The Ethiopian radio quoted the corporation’s spokesperson Miskir Negash on Monday as saying that the dam consists of ten units, each can generate 187 megawatts. Work on the project is being accelerated. More than 43 percent of electrical and mechanical work is over.
The dam will store water starting next April. Two units of it will generate electricity during the first quarter of the coming year, according to the spokesperson.
The project is funded by the government and a Chinese loan, the spokesperson said. The dam is expected to generate 1870 megawatts, which will increase the electric energy in Ethiopia by 94 percent.
There have been tensions between Addis Ababa and Cairo due to opposition towards the construction of dams on the flow of the Nile for fear that the dams affect its historic share of the water. Egypt has been calling for joint studies over impact of such projects on the water flow.
On Saturday, the corporation said 32 percent of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam has been completed and that efforts are being intensified to accomplish the rest.
Edited translation from MENA
