Today, Thursday, the Ethiopian government officially announced the start of operation of the second turbine to generate electricity from the Renaissance Dam, despite the recent Egyptian move to the UN Security Council, while the dam director said that they are currently planning to start the third filling process of the dam.
The director of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Kevel Horo, said Thursday that they are currently planning to start the third filling process of the dam.
This came during the inauguration ceremony of electricity generation through the dam's second turbine, in the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, according to the Ethiopian News Agency.
Horo added that the works of the electromechanical plant and farms reached 61%, while the work of transporting iron reached 73%.
He explained that the total construction process of the dam reached 83.3%, indicating that efforts are underway to complete the project during the next two and a half years.
During the ceremony, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed thanked all relevant actors for the successful completion of the project as per plan.
Ahmed congratulated all Ethiopians for their continuous contributions to the Grand Renaissance Dam project, noting that the successes achieved so far "prove that Ethiopia's prosperity will inevitably be achieved," according to the agency.
It is noteworthy that the second turbine will generate electric power of 270 megawatts, according to the agency.
It is worth noting that the Prime Minister officially inaugurated the generation of 375 megawatts of hydroelectric power from the dam's first turbine on February 20, 2022.
Earlier, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced, in a statement, that Addis Ababa had notified Cairo of the start of the third filling of the dam, while the latter sent a letter of objection and rejection of this filling to the UN Security Council.
It is noteworthy that negotiations on the dam have been frozen for more than a year, and Cairo and Khartoum adhere to first reaching a tripartite agreement on filling and operating the dam to ensure the continued flow of their annual share of the Nile waters, but Ethiopia refuses to do so.
Addis Ababa asserts that its dam, which it began construction about a decade ago, "does not aim to harm anyone."