APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Plans have been mooted to finish civil engineering works on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) by this Ethiopian fiscal year, which ends on July 7, 2024, the country’s president Sahele-Work Zewde has announced.
She was addressing a joint session of the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives (HoPR) and House of Federation (HoF), the lower and upper houses of parliament.
“The overall civil work of the GERD is expected to be completed during this Ethiopian fiscal year,” said the president, indicating that more than 90 percent of the construction work of the dam has been completed.
Recalling the successful conduct of the final and fourth-round filling of the dam during last Ethiopian fiscal year, which ended on July 7, 2023, the president said the project is not only to help supply power to millions of Ethiopians, but it will be a means for tourism, water resource, and environmental conservation.
Construction of the dam began a decade ago in 2011 and has since been a source of disagreement between Ethiopia and its neighbours-Sudan and Egypt.
Noting that the ongoing negotiations on GERD will continue in a way that will neither compromise Ethiopia’s right to develop through using neither its natural resources nor the benefits of her neighbours on the fair utilisation of the Nile River.
The president further said the government will focus more on enhancing economic integration than political diplomacy with its neighbours during the current Ethiopian fiscal year.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a massive hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile River which is known in Ethiopia as Abbay river.
It is one of Africa’s largest infrastructure projects.
MG/as/APA