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Delayed by a year in part due to difficulties in
tough terrain on the gorge, the construction of a
hydroelectric dam at the Tekeze River Basin, in
Tigray Regional State, is well underway. Project
supervisors on the site believe that the dam will
begin generating electricity – at least from one of
the four turbines – at the end of 2008.
The Chinese and Ethiopian joint venture company,
CWGS, was formed by China National Water Resources
and Hydropower Engineering Company (CWHEC), 49pc;
China Gezhouba Water and Power (Group) Ltd, 30pc;
and Sur Construction, 21pc. The project owner, the
Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo),
awarded the company this project at a cost of close
to two billion Birr.
When completed, the 180m high dam will become the
10th hydroelectric power plant in the country,
designed to generate 300mw of electric power from
its three turbines under construction in the
powerhouse found deep in the belly of the mountain
chains; each will have a generating capacity of 75mw
of electric power. There are now close to 500
Chinese expatriate workers at the site, working
alongside 2,000 Ethiopians.
At the signing of the contract in June 2002, Mehiret
Debebe, general manager of EEPCo, had said the
project would reach a milestone only when the dam
starts to hold some of the 9.2 billion cubic metre
of water it aims for; although the project missed
one rainy season last year, it has now begun to hold
water at a time when the project was one-third
complete. The dam, which comprises 70pc of the job,
is indeed growing as a remarkable engineering work.
Engineers have passed the most challenging phase in
the project of providing the river an outlet while
under construction.
Two of the outlets seen in the photo are designed to
give way to the river while construction is
continued on the remaining parts and the rest will
be filled later on, according to a project
supervisor.
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