Filling Of Ethiopia Dam Reservoir Will Be 'Progressive': Official

Ethiopia has shown signs of a possible revision of its reservoir filling strategy at its multibillion-dollar hydro dam project on the Nile.



This came during a visit organized by the Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO) to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) by a group of 32 foreign media journalists on Tuesday.



The visit came ahead of Thursday's fourth anniversary of the launching of the GERD project.



"The original plan was to fill the reservoir of the dam between five to six years," GERD manager Semegnew Bekele said.



"The filling will be made progressively," he said describing the technical term "progressive" as something which takes into consideration the requirement of downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.



Bekele said the 74 billion cubic meter water will be filled across a 246km long reservoir.



Now, the dam's roller compact concrete (RCC) went up to more than 40 meters of the 147 meter long dam.



"Excavation is almost complete," he said. "The project is progressing healthily and noticeably."



Last week, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan signed a declaration of principles in Khartoum on the GERD project.



For several months, Ethiopia's multibillion-dollar dam project had been at the center of a diplomatic row between Cairo and Addis Ababa.



While Ethiopia views the project as necessary to its economic development, Egypt fears it could lead to a marked reduction in its historical share of Nile water.



-Benefits-



Beyond mentioning a possible flexibility on the part of Ethiopia concerning the dam's filling strategy, Bekele did not give any timeframe as to how long the water filling at the reservoir will take.



He suggested, however, that the filling of the 6000 megawatt capacity dam would be carried out while taking into consideration the needs of downstream countries.



During Tuesday's visit, Bekele listed what he described as local, downstream as well as regional and international benefits of the dam project.



According to him, the GERD would maintain regulated flow of water throughout the year.



"[As a result], it will avoid flood risk and traps sediments [and] lifts energy within the existing power plants," he said.



"[It] reduces evaporation loses and reduces transmission loses," he said. "It [dam] enhances navigation and elongates navigation route."



A tripartite technical panel is expected to select soon one from four consultancy firms bidding to conduct two studies about the dam.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Addis Ababa