The Renaissance Dam, or as it is also called the Grand Millennium Dam, the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a concern of Egyptian experts, and raises conc
Renaissance Dam
The Renaissance Dam, or as it is also called the Grand Millennium Dam, the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a concern of Egyptian experts, and raises concerns about its negative impact on the waters of the Nile, especially with regard to its flow, and the agreed Egyptian water share.
It is a water dam that is still under construction, and its construction is supposed to be completed by the year 2017 AD, and this dam is currently being built on the course of the Blue Nile River, which passes through the Ethiopian Gumuz-Gumuz state, which is located near the border strip separating Ethiopia and Sudan The area of this dam is between twenty to forty kilometers, and the height of its barrier is one hundred and forty-five meters, and its length reaches one thousand eight hundred meters. And nearly seven hundred million dollars.
The participating African countries await the completion of the construction of the Renaissance Dam, by crossing the Nile from their lands. In view of the importance you will be given to it; As the African continent will have the largest hydroelectric dam that can be used to raise electric power rates, and the dam will be ranked tenth in the world as the largest generator of electric energy.
According to the estimates of the Ethiopian Electric Power Authority, it is expected that the Renaissance Dam will generate six thousand megawatts, by relying on turbines (electrical generators) with a power and capacity of 16 x turbines, each with a capacity of three hundred and seventy-five megawatts.
The design of the Renaissance Dam
The Ethiopian Electric Power Authority determined the dimensions of the Renaissance Dam and its final shape before the start of its construction work, so it worked to construct it from compressed concrete material that gives it strength and rigidity, and removes fears of collapse at any time, and the width of the long-standing dam will reach approximately one thousand eight hundred meters, while it rises To a distance of up to one hundred and seventy meters.
Two stations will be built on this impregnable brown dam. This is to increase the electric power and its generation, and for each station to settle on one side of the water drainage channels, and it is estimated that one station of the power stations contains about 8 x 350 megawatts of Francis turbines and generators, and a tank is built up to three miles long, and can accommodate approximately six hundred And three billion cubic meters of water.
The cost of the Renaissance Dam and its financing
The Ethiopian government donated the full costs of building the Renaissance Dam, and it is indicated that the total cost of building this dam reaches four billion and eight million US dollars. Everything related to hydropower plants, their turbines, and their equipment cost nearly one billion and eight million US dollars.
Chinese banks will fully finance this amount, while the remaining three billion of the project cost will be provided and financed by the government, and the total amount of the dam's cost constitutes a proportion of the gross domestic product, estimated at fifteen percent.
Establishment of the Renaissance Dam
The Salini company has won the bid to build the Renaissance Dam, and is considered the main contractor for it, and it is a source of great confidence. Due to its history in the construction of major dams such as Gilgel Dam 1, Gilgel Dam 2, and others, the contractor's expectations indicate that the total amount of concrete that will be consumed during the construction of the dam will reach ten million tons of concrete, provided that it depends entirely on local concrete in its construction.
The Italian company also contracted with its counterpart, Tranus Caffe Spa, in exchange for selling cables with high voltage for the dam and at a low cost, and the first phase of construction of the dam will witness the availability of approximately eight x 375 megawatts of Francis turbines, with a cost of two hundred and fifty million euros, and the construction plan was completed The dam is about twenty percent in April of 2013.
Construction stages progressed; Concrete was poured, the first station was installed while the other was still under construction, and on the 28th of May 2013, the Ethiopian government held an official ceremonial ceremony; This is due to the diversion of the Blue Nile water to it.
Benefits of the Renaissance Dam
- Hydropower generation.
- Make use of the electricity generated from the hydroelectric power stations; By selling it to its neighbors, such as Sudan, Egypt and others.
- Reducing the pressures of electric power generation, and reducing them from the electric generation station, and relying on hydroelectric energy in that.
The environmental and social impacts of the Renaissance Dam
- Renaissance tank.
- Impact on Ethiopia.
- Impact on neighboring countries such as Sudan and Egypt.
The effects of the construction of the Renaissance Dam
- The impact of the dam on Ethiopia: The construction of the dam carries many economic benefits for the country of Ethiopia, the most important of which is the large production of electrical energy that can later be sold through power transmission lines to neighboring countries, including Sudan and Egypt, and the construction of the dam on the Blue Nile will reduce the risk of the annual flood that destroys Many villages are in a state of higher than usual level, and on the other hand, there are some concerns about the negative impacts that will be inflicted on agriculture in the estuary area due to the decrease of the flood, in addition to other environmental impacts on the names of fisheries across the river. More than five thousand Ethiopians live in the reservoir area and the downstream area behind the dam.
- On Sudan and Egypt: Although the exact impact of the dam on the downstream countries is not known yet, the downstream countries, especially Egypt, fear a decrease in the level of the Nile River during the period of filling the Renaissance Dam reservoir, which will negatively affect Egyptian agriculture, and the loss of nearly two million Their income farms during that period, and the electricity supply in Egypt could be negatively affected and reduced to nearly half due to the reduction in the capacity of the High Dam in southern Egypt to produce electricity.
Negative effects of the Renaissance Dam
There are many negative effects that the dam will have on Ethiopia and the neighboring countries, such as: depriving many agricultural fields of water resources, which will reduce the area of agricultural land that used to depend on flood water, and it will also reduce the number of fisheries, but the most confusing thing is the transfer of about Twenty thousand people from their areas of residence and resettlement in other areas, which means depriving many residents of their sources of livelihood and work, in addition to the spread of some epidemics and diseases such as malaria, as for Egypt, it opposes its construction and has fears of a low level of water level, which is its share of the Nile River, The declining percentage of cultivated lands will cause two million farmers to lose their livelihoods, in addition to the significant impact on the supply of electric power and its low levels, which will affect the water level of Lake Nasser, as well as the work of the High Dam, as well as the Sennar Rossiere dam in Sudan.
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