Ethiopian hydro project could begin power generation by June

• 9 years ago (2015-01-02)
• Junior Isles

Africa 320 Europe 1089

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Gilgel Gibe 3, a much delayed $1.8 billion dam project under construction along Ethiopia's Omo river could start generating power by June and be fully operational early 2016, according to a government official.

Work started in 2008 and should have been completed in 2011, but it stalled due to funding shortages and potential environmental impact.

The energy generated by Gilgel Gibe 3 will nearly double Ethiopia's energy output, by plugging 1870 MW of power into the country’s national grid.

Azeb Asnake, chief executive of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, said that “88 per cent of the work for the Gibe 3 hydropower project has already been completed”.

The new dam is part of a wider $12 billion programme of investment to tap into the power potential of the many rivers that run down Ethiopia's craggy highlands over the next two decades in order to try and beat energy shortages and maintain the country’s economic growth rates of nearly 9 per cent per year.

However, critics of the project say that it will devastate the local environment of Lake Turkana, which is fed by the Omo. These concerns were behind the refusal of the European Investment Fund and the African Development Bank to previously reject disbursing funds to the project.