- Title: Ethiopia dam official blames delays on troubled parastatal METEC
- Date: 1st October 2019
- Summary: GUBA, ETHIOPIA (SEPTEMBER 27, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS VIEWS OF THE RIVER NILE VIEW OF THE MAIN RENAISSANCE DAM VARIOUS OF BULLDOZERS VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS WORKING AMONGST METAL RODS IN DAM WALLS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BELACHEW KASSA, DEPUTY PROJECT COORDINATOR, SAYING: "The length of the dam is 1.8 Kilometres, the height is 1,145 meters and the quantity of the Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) expected to be filled to the completion of the project is 10.2 million cubic meters. Of this, up to now, more than 8 million RCC has been already placed. So the overall completion of the main dam is more than 80.41 percent." VIEW OF DAM WALL WITH WATER POURING THROUGH VARIOUS OF WORKERS PLACING METALS ROD TO REINFORCE DAM WALLS VARIOUS OF DAM WALL/RIVER NILE FLOWING THROUGH (SOUNDBITE) (English) BELACHEW KASSA, DEPUTY PROJECT COORDINATOR, SAYING: "The work is not stopped. It is progressing very well. We already have here more than 5,500 employees working for all these seven contractors. So the work is progressing pretty well. So no problem. We hope that the project will be completed in the planned time." VARIOUS OF THE DAM/RIVER NILE
- Embargoed: 15th October 2019 09:42
- Keywords: Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam River Nile Africa’s biggest power exporter METEC $4 billion hydropower dam
- Location: GUBA, ETHIOPIA
- City: GUBA, ETHIOPIA
- Country: Ethiopia
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001AZ9L36F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Construction of a $4-billion dam at the heart of Ethiopia's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter has been delayed five years as engineers had to replace shoddy work by a conglomerate pulled off the job last year, a project official said.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, announced in 2011, was designed to generate more than 6,000 megawatts in a region that struggles to produce enough energy, but has proved a lightning rod for tensions in both Ethiopia and Egypt.
"The length of the dam is 1.8 Kilometres, the height is 1,145 meters and the quantity of the Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) expected to be filled to the completion of the project is 10.2 million cubic meters. Of this, up to now, more than 8 million RCC has been already placed. So the overall completion of the main dam is more than 80.41 percent," said Belachew Kassa, the site coordinator and deputy head of the project.
Officials say they have removed some of the steelworks on the bottom outlets, and replaced them with new ones, and also readjusted and repaired some of the steel structure works.
The project's managers say the bottom outlets were initially done by METEC referring to Ethiopia's military-industrial conglomerate that undertook much of the building work but was pulled from the project in August last year after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office that April.
A bottom outlet is an opening at a low level from a reservoir that is generally used to freely discharge water.
Controversy in Ethiopia has focused on METEC's involvement in the project to dam the Nile, but Egypt sees the effort as an existential threat, since the river supplies nearly 90 percent of its fresh water for drinking, farming and industry.
Ethiopia has put the former head of METEC, Kinfe Dagnew, on trial after arresting him on corruption charges in November, along with dozens of employees.
Early this year, Ethiopia handed contracts to fulfill METEC's work to a group of foreign companies that include Italy's Salini Impregilo SpA, GE Hydro France, China Gezhouba Group Corp, Voith Hydro Shanghai and China's Sinohydro Corp.
"The work is not stopped. It is progressing very well. We already have here more than 5,500 employees working for all these seven contractors. So the work is progressing pretty well. So no problem. We hope that the project will be completed in the planned time," said Kassa.
Belachew said it was unclear exactly how much METEC was to blame for delays that have put the project five years behind schedule. Although Abiy blamed METEC for problems last year, he did not say how long a delay they had caused.
The dam was initially supposed to have been finished in 2018, but an initial two turbines are now due to start generating 750 megawatts each in December 2020.
The entire dam is due to be completed by 2022, Ethiopia's water minister, Seleshi Bekele, said last week.
The hydropower dam on the Nile River is located 500 km (311 miles) northwest of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, near the border with Sudan.
(Kumerra Gemechu, Okwi Okoh, Katherine Houreld) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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