Ethiopia determined to complete the Nile dam by 2017

The Nile is the longest river in the world passing through 11 different countries including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. It is the primary source of water for many of these countries especially Egypt and Sudan.





Ethiopia is constructing electrical dam on the Nile River. The dam is expected to be completed by 2017. The target is to construct electrical dam with 145 meters high and 1780 meters long.



This dam will hold 74 billion cubic meter water. It will also have 16 units of power production and two power houses. After its completion in the year 2017 this great Ethiopian renaissance dam is expected to produce 6000 megawatt. This will make it the biggest and the largest hydropower project in the whole Africa and the seventh biggest in the world.


Regardless of the construction keeps going Egypt which uses 80% of Nile river remains concerned. Egypt says the diversion of the path of Nile which is done by Ethiopia will affect the normal flow of the river to its territory. The Ethiopian government says this claim is wrong because the evasion of the river is inevitable with the construction of the dam. Ethiopian government also says even after the completion of the dam Egypt will not be affected since Ethiopia hasn’t planned to use the dam for irrigation it will be used for Electrical power production, there might also be fishing area and something like that which doesn’t affect the interest of Egypt. Ethiopia claims the only reason the path of Nile is diverted is because it is impossible to build the dam where the river is flowing.


To support its claim Ethiopia has chosenSalini construction 23 the Italian company that has the record of building 20 big dams In 4 continents. This company has won the 4.8 billion dollar (80 Billion Ethiopian Birr) contract on March 2011. The Salini construction project manager is Francesco Verdi.





Egypt says its concern is from facing water crisis while the population is increasing. Egypt insists to claim the largest share of the river based on the British Nile water agreement.