Today, Friday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the successful completion of the third filling process of the Renaissance Dam, at a time when Addis Ababa announced the operation of a second turbine to generate electric power with a capacity of 375 megawatts, bringing the amount of power generation to 750 megawatts.
The director of the dam expected that "the project will be completed within the next two and a half years."
Abi Ahmed said that "the filling took place in a smooth manner without any damage to the water share of the downstream countries," adding that "22 billion cubic meters were seized, and one turbine was operated in the dam to generate electric power, without harming the downstream countries or their water shares."
He continued in a speech from the dam site that "during the filling, the water did not stop for one day, and it was flowing and going to our brothers."
The Ethiopian Prime Minister indicated that "Ethiopia is keen to invest its resources and provide electricity to its people without harming others," stressing that his country's goal is to work with downstream countries to achieve common development.
Abi Ahmed officially inaugurated the first phase of electrical energy production from the Renaissance Dam last February, 7 months after the completion of the second filling of the dam's reservoir.
ግድብ ግድብ 3ኛው ሕዳሴር ውኃ ሙሌ ሙሌ በስኬ
ዓባይ ላይ ግድብ ለ ራሳችን ራሳችን lordማድረግ ፍላጎ አድሮብን እንዳልሆነ ከ ከ ጀ lordሪያውም ስንናገር ነበ saying ማግኘ lord ሚገባንን እናግኝ ስንል 1/5 pic.twitter.com/hVtCy2KTlg
— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) August 12, 2022
second turbine
Yesterday, Thursday, Ethiopia announced the operation of the second turbine of the Renaissance Dam in order to generate electricity, in the presence of the country's President Sahli Work Zewdi, Prime Minister Abi Ahmed and other officials.
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that Ethiopia had informed it of the start of the third filling of the Renaissance Dam last July, and said that it had directed to the UN Security Council an objection to Ethiopia’s plans to fill unilaterally without an agreement with Egypt and Sudan.
Addis Ababa had announced last February the start of electricity production from the Renaissance Dam (Anatolia).
Cairo and Khartoum adhere to first reaching a tripartite agreement on filling and operating the dam, to ensure the continued flow of their annual quotas of the Nile waters. However, Addis Ababa rejects this and affirms that its dam - which it began construction about a decade ago - does not aim to harm anyone.
Since the project was launched in 2011, the Renaissance Dam has sparked a conflict with Sudan and Egypt, which depend on the Nile for their water resources.
In 2011, Ethiopia launched the project, estimated at $4 billion, and aims to build the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, but it raises regional tensions, especially with Egypt, which relies on the Nile River to provide about 90% of its irrigation and drinking water needs.
The Renaissance Dam is located on the Blue Nile in the "Bani Shanqul-Gemz" region, about 30 km from the border with Sudan, and is 1.8 km long and 145 meters high.