Berliner Boersenzeitung - Ethiopia starts generating power at Nile mega-dam

EUR -
AED 4.232438
AFN 81.7399
ALL 97.895927
AMD 444.690649
ANG 2.06248
AOA 1056.812299
ARS 1342.051944
AUD 1.776305
AWG 2.07444
AZN 1.963769
BAM 1.955319
BBD 2.326228
BDT 140.905351
BGN 1.955319
BHD 0.434093
BIF 3431.056288
BMD 1.152467
BND 1.480136
BOB 7.961042
BRL 6.353668
BSD 1.152117
BTN 99.741473
BWP 15.528182
BYN 3.770473
BYR 22588.345428
BZD 2.314331
CAD 1.568796
CDF 3315.646835
CHF 0.93869
CLF 0.028263
CLP 1084.563727
CNY 8.284511
CNH 8.272986
COP 4705.142985
CRC 581.656968
CUC 1.152467
CUP 30.540365
CVE 110.237892
CZK 24.820447
DJF 205.169548
DKK 7.460613
DOP 68.323199
DZD 150.218061
EGP 58.324658
ERN 17.286999
ETB 158.433541
FJD 2.603941
FKP 0.856615
GBP 0.852889
GEL 3.135159
GGP 0.856615
GHS 11.867082
GIP 0.856615
GMD 82.4058
GNF 9982.545249
GTQ 8.854823
GYD 241.040727
HKD 9.046696
HNL 30.090601
HRK 7.536214
HTG 151.212816
HUF 402.706852
IDR 18944.591768
ILS 4.02004
IMP 0.856615
INR 99.781139
IQD 1509.328849
IRR 48547.656077
ISK 143.033075
JEP 0.856615
JMD 183.664836
JOD 0.817144
JPY 168.352902
KES 148.913382
KGS 100.783647
KHR 4617.864447
KMF 492.683845
KPW 1037.219942
KRW 1582.544532
KWD 0.35307
KYD 0.960164
KZT 602.06195
LAK 24856.887583
LBP 103230.815094
LKR 346.214864
LRD 230.423338
LSL 20.801885
LTL 3.402935
LVL 0.697116
LYD 6.280456
MAD 10.515714
MDL 19.811128
MGA 5148.733904
MKD 61.514873
MMK 2419.838955
MNT 4129.300049
MOP 9.315509
MRU 45.542801
MUR 52.575963
MVR 17.753793
MWK 1997.80873
MXN 22.112036
MYR 4.900869
MZN 73.712199
NAD 20.801885
NGN 1786.450441
NIO 42.399574
NOK 11.650198
NPR 159.586757
NZD 1.931967
OMR 0.442591
PAB 1.152117
PEN 4.137283
PGK 4.816816
PHP 65.888865
PKR 326.91661
PLN 4.268679
PYG 9195.738728
QAR 4.202067
RON 5.030175
RSD 117.20118
RUB 90.2778
RWF 1663.690891
SAR 4.32429
SBD 9.612065
SCR 16.999311
SDG 692.060432
SEK 11.146611
SGD 1.480964
SHP 0.905658
SLE 25.873303
SLL 24166.652664
SOS 658.438087
SRD 44.773754
STD 23853.731871
SVC 10.081521
SYP 14984.198484
SZL 20.797886
THB 37.818235
TJS 11.377302
TMT 4.033633
TND 3.410561
TOP 2.699196
TRY 45.723145
TTD 7.830075
TWD 34.101261
TZS 3058.947791
UAH 48.287326
UGX 4152.978764
USD 1.152467
UYU 47.108416
UZS 14469.441901
VES 118.193176
VND 30112.223648
VUV 138.188848
WST 3.179206
XAF 655.795737
XAG 0.032012
XAU 0.000342
XCD 3.114599
XDR 0.815599
XOF 655.795737
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.707783
ZAR 20.740485
ZMK 10373.586524
ZMW 26.643448
ZWL 371.093776
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Ethiopia starts generating power at Nile mega-dam
Ethiopia starts generating power at Nile mega-dam

Ethiopia starts generating power at Nile mega-dam

Ethiopia began generating electricity from its mega-dam on the Blue Nile on Sunday, a milestone in the controversial multi-billion dollar project.

Text size:

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, accompanied by high-ranking officials, toured the power station and pressed a series of buttons on an electronic screen, a move that officials said initiated production.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is set to be the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa but has been at the centre of a dispute with downstream nations Egypt and Sudan ever since work first began in 2011.

Abiy described Sunday's development as "the birth of a new era".

"This is a good news for our continent & the downstream countries with whom we aspire to work together," he said on Twitter.

Addis Ababa deems the project essential for the electrification and development of Africa's second most populous country, but Cairo and Khartoum fear it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters.

Abiy, wearing sunglasses and a khaki-coloured hat emblazoned with the Ethiopian flag as he toured the site, dismissed those concerns.

"As you can see this water will generate energy while flowing as it previously flowed to Sudan and Egypt, unlike the rumours that say the Ethiopian people and government are damming the water to starve Egypt and Sudan," he said as water rushed through the concrete colossus behind him.

But Cairo denounced Sunday's start-up, with the foreign ministry saying Addis Ababa was "persisting in its violations" of a declaration of principles on the project signed by the three nations in 2015.

- 'Resisting external pressure' -

The $4.2-billion (3.7-billion-euro) dam is ultimately expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity, more than doubling Ethiopia's current output.

Only one of 13 turbines is currently operational, with an installed capacity of 375 megawatts.

A second will come online within a few months, project manager Kifle Horo told AFP, adding that the dam is currently expected to be fully completed in 2024.

The 145-metre (475-foot) high structure straddles the Blue Nile in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of western Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan.

Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam as an existential threat.

Sudan hopes the project will regulate annual flooding, but fears its own dams could be harmed without agreement on the GERD's operation.

Both have long been pushing for a binding deal over the filling and operation of the massive dam, but African Union-sponsored talks have failed to achieve a breakthrough.

William Davison, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the GERD is seen domestically "as a symbol of Ethiopia resisting external pressure".

"The government has propagated the idea that foreign actors are trying to undermine Ethiopia's sovereignty, so I think this will be cast as showing they are still making progress despite a hostile environment."

Addisu Lashitew of the Brookings Institution in Washington added that the GERD's commissioning was a "rare positive development that can unite a deeply fractured country" after 15 months of brutal conflict with Tigrayan rebels.

"The newly-generated electricity from the GERD could help revive an economy that has been devastated by the combined forces of a deadly war, rising fuel prices and the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

- Project delays -

The dam was initiated under former prime minister Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012.

Civil servants contributed one month's salary towards the project in the year of the project launch, and the government has since issued dam bonds targeting Ethiopians at home and abroad.

But officials on Sunday credited Abiy with reviving the dam after what they claim was mismanagement delayed its progress.

"Our country has lost so much because the dam was delayed, especially financially," project manager Kifle said at the launch ceremony.

The process of filling the GERD's vast reservoir began in 2020, with Ethiopia announcing in July of that year it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic metres.

The reservoir’s total capacity is 74 billion cubic metres, and the target for 2021 was to add 13.5 billion.

Last July Ethiopia said it had hit that target, meaning there was enough water to begin producing energy, although some experts had cast doubt on the claims.

Kifle declined to reveal how much water was collected last year or what the target is for the coming rainy season.

(Y.Yildiz--BBZ)