What Ethiopia requires to build the largest electric dam in Africa

The expansion of the building’s location was initially overwhelming for the young Ethiopian mechanical engineer.

Hundreds were already digging institutions in difficult circumstances of what has now become the largest photo dam in Africa, extending to the Blue Nile. The dam will help electrify the country as well as provide energy to the region.

Modes Yeshiwas 27 when he reached that remote angle of West Ethiopia in 2012, keen to gain valuable experience in his profession. The project is to be completed to change his nation, but also changed his life.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Abi Ahmed has officially launched the Green Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), praising it as “the greatest achievement in the history of black race.”

The dam will help electrify the country as well as provide energy to the region.

The wall extends 1.78 km (1.1 miles) through a valley and a height of 145 meters (475 feet) – which is built on 11 million cubic meters of concrete. It has created a huge reservoir, called Lake Nigat, which means dawn in the language of Amharrik.

The construction of the dam on the tributary of the Nile, which provides most of the great river water, was controversial with the downstream countries. Diplomatic tension with Egypt has faded There was even talking about the conflict.

But for Ethiopia, the reflux of the esophagus has become a symbol of national pride, and in the point of view of Abi, his country was firmly placed on the world stage.

On a personal level, Mr. Mugs, 40, was “very proud to be part of it.”

“Watching the progress in the dam was very satisfactory. I came to work, but somewhere all the way, stopped feeling just a job. I have grown associated with the project, and worried about his future as if it were my own.”

There were challenges.

“The long separation from the family was difficult,” he told the BBC. Mr. Modes could not only return home-400 km in Bahir Dar-twice a year.

Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, sometimes it reaches the temperatures of up to 45 ° C – sometimes, sometimes, with temperatures up to 45 ° C. In addition, the working hours were long.

Mr. Mogh

His job was to ensure that construction work was structurally sound and construction standards were preserved.

The GERD project was a rare unified power as it rocked the country of Horn of Africa with political violence and ethnic conflict in the past decade.

While some, such as the engineer, worked directly on the dam, millions of others have invested literally.

People from all aspects of life contributed to building the dam through donations and buying bonds issued by the government.

Although US President Donald Trump demands that Washington supported the construction of the dam, Addis Ababa confirms that it was fully funded locally.

Several donation campaigns that have seen the public contribution were held several times.

The clinical nurse Kiros Asspo was one of these.

Although he was from the Tigray region, which was subjected to a two -year civil war, he contributed when he managed to build the dam since the announcement of the plans for the first time in 2011.

He says he bought government bonds more than 100 times – although he had to stop his purchases during the conflict, when basic services, including banking services, were suspended in Tigray.

Mr. Kerus’s motive in statements made by the late Prime Minister Ethiopia Milis Zenawi, who supervised the beginning of the project, was rooted that all Ethiopians should meet in support of the dam.

“I promised myself to do whatever I can to help him during the finish line,” the five father told the BBC.

Now, with all the operating turbines, ideas turn into the difference that power can cause for Ethiopia.

At full capacity, 5,100 MB of energy should be born – more than twice as much as the country without the dam and sufficient degree to supply dozens of millions in homes in the country. However, this depends on the infrastructure in place to carry energy into different parts of the country.

Habtamu IFETA BBC told the 135 million people of the country that they do not get electricity.

“This is what we want to move now in the next five years. By 2030, at least 90 % of our nation must get electricity,” he said.

Getnessh Gabiso is thirty -five -year -old, who lives in Alamura, an agricultural village outside Hawassa, a major city in southern Ethiopia, one of those who imagine the difference that can make it.

Her life reflects those millions of others in rural Ethiopia.

Although her small straw hut with clay walls was only 10 kilometers from Hawasa, Mrs. Gitinish, her husband and three children cannot access electricity.

To cook firewood around their nearby farm.

For light, they use kerosene -powered lamps. Her husband, Jerma Galsha, is concerned about the health of his family.

He said: “Getnessh used to have big and beautiful eyes. But all these years of smoke destroyed them. They have become water.”

“I am worried about what I will do if the fumes suffocate my children.”

For Mrs. Getnessh, who, when dark, sometimes depends on the weak light of her mobile phone phone, just to be able to see him at night is what she dreams of.

“I want to see the light in my house. All other electrical commodities do not matter now. Just the light in the evening is all I want,” I told BBC.

They are looking forward to the difference that the power can make from GERD. However, the Minister of Government, Idamo, admits that more must be done to expand the infrastructure of the National Energy Network.

Tens of thousands of cables are still placed from the cable to ensure the connection of small cities and remote villages.

But for the engineer, Mr. Mobiles, the energy resulting from the Blue Nile will eventually make a difference.

He has a son while working on the dam.

He says, “I hate the fact that I cannot be there as much as I need.” “But I know that his future will be bright because of something I contributed, and I am very proud to tell him that when he grows up.”

Additional reports by Hanna Taymari