Gilgel Gibe III hydro plant contributes 30-40 percent of the national annual energy generation. The water level of the hydro dam, however, has fallen significantly, exacerbating electricity deficit and pushing the country to introduce a rationing system.
On a parliamentary session last
Monday, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed confirmed the drop in the water level at Gibe III hydro-dam and attributed it to weather shocks felt last Ethiopian year.
The premier explained this as he presented his administration’s performance report of this fiscal year, to be concluded next Sunday, to the House of Peoples’ Representatives.
His explanation came following a question from an MP regarding the causes of power rationing the Ethiopian Electric Utility has put to effect over the last few months.
Andarge Eshete, Ethiopian Electric Power Chief Executive Officer for Generation Operations explained to a local news channel, ETV, earlier last Month that the amount of water entered to the damover last major rainy season [June, July, and August] was far below expectation.
The dam has an impounding capacity of 14 billion cubic meters of water (half the size of LakeTana), but the amount entered to it last rainy season was 6.1 billion cubic meters of water, he said.
Risks of water shortage at hydro-dams might not, perhaps, be unique to Ethiopia.The World Energy Council’s World Energy Perspective 2016 alreadyforecasted as the effects of drought on energy supplies wasto be felt across the world.
But experts argue that countries with better water retention potentials could overcome water stress resulting from short-term droughts.
Minister of Water, Irrigation, and Energy Dr.Eng. SileshiBekele, commencing Ethiopia’sWater and Energy Week, on Monday 17 of June 2019, described the potential in figure. “Ethiopia gets one billioncubic meters of water from rainfall; it gets 122 billion cubic meters of surface water and up to 40 million cubic meters from groundwater annually.”
Though many new dams have taken shape in the past, experts describe Ethiopia’s retention capacity as low.
To site, the country currently generates 4,300 MW from its 14 water dams, as the Minister noted.
Eng. Gedion Asfaw, Ministry’s Advisor, speaks to The Ethiopian Herald on water retention capacity of Ethiopia.
“Our national annual water retention capacity is estimated at 122 billion cubic meters,” he reiterates.
At least the country’s water retention per individual ought to reach up to 1,700 cubic meters, he adds.
To him, the current water retention capacity [at hydroelectric Dams] is 470 cubic meter per individualannually. When the GERD comes to completion, this would grow to 640 cubic meters per individual, according to Gedion. Even with this amount, Ethiopia falls in the list of water-stressed country, he adds.
He comments that more works need to be done to increase the country’s water retention capacity which includes considering the construction new dams in the medium and long terms.
To him, the thing should not only be building new dams but it should also be building efficient dams that have large impounding capacity.
Seconding Eng. Gedion’s argument, Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office Executive Director Fekeahmed Negash says that future dam construction should take better design and location to increase the efficiency of reservoirs.
Environmental protection works offer an unparalleled solution,both in the short and long terms, to pull Ethiopia out of the list of water stress countries in addition to ensuring the longevity of reservoirs’ life, he concludes.
The premier’s initiative of planting four billion seedlings only this rainy season and additional 200 million seedlings in one day in mid-July awards dams, both at home and in the Nile Basin with a new lease of life but if and only if compounded with tasks in the dry season to ensure the chance of the seedlings survival.
Gibe III dam has a capacity to hold 14 bln cubic meter water with the installed generation of 1870MW
The Ethiopian Herald July 5/2019
BY YESUF ENDRIS
