Ethiopia starts the first phase of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Wednesday July 8, after years of waiting.

Sources at the construction site told Capital that the dam starts catching water mid this week and expects to be filled to some level in few weeks for the first phase.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week told parliament that it is impossible not to start the filling in this season.  According to sources the primary stage of filling will supply a level of 560 meters above sea level along with the “early generation of electricity”.

Satellite images also show that the catchment area is being filled with water. The filling stages that ensue will see a release based on the hydrological conditions of Abay.

GERD is a 6,000 MW hydropower project nearing completion on the Abay is located about 30 km upstream of the border with Sudan. It will be the largest hydropower project in Africa. Owned and operated by the Ethiopian Electric Power, the 145-m-tall roller-compacted concrete gravity dam will flood 1,874 km2 at a normal pool elevation of 640 m, and will have a tributary catchment of 172,250 km2. With a volume of 74 km3 (of which 14.8 km3 is dead storage), the reservoir can hold about 1.6 years’ worth of average flow of the Abay – 48.5 km3/yr – at the El Diem gage station, just below the border in Sudan.

Background

The GERD project is a majestic hydroelectric plant, which was born in the 60s concerning a vast and far-sighted plan to exploit the Abay potential for hydroelectric purposes and improve management of this huge water resource.

The concrete faced rockfill (CFRD) saddle dam is 60 m high and approximately 5 km long, with an embankment volume of 15 million m3. Its composite cut-off, made up by grouting and plastic diaphragm panels, was conceived to fulfil two different requirements: permeability and erosion control.

The river diversion system, designed to discharge up to 14’700 m3/s, includes four culverts for discharging during the dry season and a temporary stepped spillway structure located in the central part of the dam, for dam overtopping during the wet season.

A system of three spillways safeguards the project against the Probable Maximum Flood (30’200 m3/s peak and 18’000 m3/s routed discharge): the main service gated spillway, located on a saddle area; the aforesaid free-flow crest spillway on the overflow section of the main dam; the side channel un-gated emergency spillway.

The main dam is crossed by sixteen penstocks (8m diameter), two of which at lower elevation committed to early generation during reservoir impounding.

The two outdoor powerhouses are located at the main dam toe on the right and left riverside housing 10 Francis turbine units and 6 Francis turbine units respectively, with 375 MW each. The step-up transformers, erected in the yard between the main dam downstream face and the powerhouses, are connected through overhead lines to the 500 kV switchyard, located on right bank.

The project was made possible to the vision and ambition of the late PM Meles Zenawi, who resolved to fulfil the ancient dream of past emperors. He decided to build the plant directly to its maximum expansion, not in stages.

Kenya suspends all schools until January 2021

The Ministry of Education announced its decision for all primary and secondary students to pass to the next grade except for those who are taking national exams in 8th and 12th grades. However the Ministry of Science and Higher Education did not come up with a decision on how to deal with university students.

“Because our plan is to get all our students back to their education and we have decided to pass all our students to the next grade” said Haregua Mamo Communication Director of the Ministry of Education.

In neighbouring Kenya where quality of education is considered high compared to Ethiopia, 2020’s school calendar is considered lost and primary and secondary schools will resume next year in January 2021, with a phased reopening of colleges and universities.

Schools have been closed for the last five months and will continue until the government decides to start the education. Ethiopia has around 20 million students in Ethiopian.

On 16 March Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that schools and universities would halt classes for two weeks. On 17 March the Minister of Science and Higher Education HirutWoldemariam gave further directions on how universities should act. For many, it was not an easy order to follow since little preparation had been made by institutions towards this end. However, the decision was applauded by the public, while the duration of school closures remains uncertain.

According to Haregua, grade 8 and grade 12 students will take classes for one and half months before taking the exam since it is mandatory.

As stated by Haregua, if the situation gets better the ministry is planning to start classes in September 2021.

In addition to virtual platforms, the Ministry of Education is using public television to provide courses for students of all ages as well as training to teachers. Two weeks ago Addis Ababa city education bureau has give model examination for grade eight students.

Ethiopia now follows an 8-4-4 system and students currently at the tail end of their studies are required to seat for their national exams in order to progress to from primary education into secondary and high school into university.

Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister, on his appearance at the parliament for ratification of the budget for 2020/21 states that the economic reform agenda introduced since 2018/19 budget year has enabled to get changes in the past two years.

The reformist prime minister and his team that came to power in April 2018 has introduced a three year economic reform to correct some mismatches in the economy.

He said at the parliament that the reform agenda brewed fruit in the macroeconomic and productivity sectors of the economy besides relaxing the debt stress and budget gap.

“In the past the country faced a wide budget gap and high debt risk that forced us to suspend access to finance,” PM Abiy told parliament.

To change this, the government have introduced home grown economic agenda that target to improve macroeconomic imbalance, structural problems, and focus on more productivity on areas that have potentials, he said.

“From this target in the past two years we have been working to improve the high debt risk status to medium that we have achieved,” PM Abiy said.

According to the PM the country’s external debt that was 31 percent of the GDP two years ago has now dropped to 25 percent of the GDP.

The Ministry of Finance ‘Public Sector Debt Statistical Bulletin’ issued in March indicated that the first six months of debt status shows that the country’s external debt stood at 28.7 percent of the GDP as of December 31, 2019 and the country external debt is close to USD 27.7 billion until the stated time.

PM Abiy’s government was strongly engaged on lobbing creditors like China to extend debt settlement period and reschedule the type of non-concessional loans to pro-poor long payment periods, wide grace period and minimal interest rate.

“Because of the reschedule we have got a relief and enabled us to use resources for other developmental projects,” he explained.

In the past, most of the mobilized resources were allocated for public projects that discriminate and exclude the private sector to play its part for the country growth. He said that this is now changing.

To enhance the private sector capacity the government has also taken measures on financial institutions on lifting the 27 percent NBE bond that will help the private sector to access more finance.

PM Abiy said that aiming to increase productivity in the agricultural sector the government has been undertaking several changes. “Increasing the supply of agricultural inputs and importing all type of agricultural machineries on duty free basis is part of the reforms,” PM Abiy explained.

“Facilitating ways to make finance available for small holder farmers is also part of the change that would allow farmers to equip with required technologies in the sector with relaxed loan conditions,” he said.

In the mining sector the gold revenue has changed because of policy improvement at National Bank of Ethiopia.

PM Abiy said that Ethiopia’s nominal GDP has been 2.2 trillion birr (USD 85 billion) two years ago that has now reached 3.4 trillion birr, which is USD 100 billion.

To amplify the success in the economy the PM said that the capital budget for the 2020/21 budget year is 160 billion birr, which was 89 billion birr in the budget year of 2017/18.

For the year the parliament has approved 476 billion birr for the budget year that started as of July 8.

For agriculture and irrigation sector the government has allocated 33.4 billion birr with increment of more than 12 billion birr compared with two years ago.

The reformist government has also given more attention for irrigation as additional source of water for the farmer. In the budget year about 10,000 water pumps were imported duty free and for the new budget year 16 billion birr is allocated for major irrigation projects.

At the same time the road sector, which is the leader in securing the biggest budget for the past two decades, has secured more than 58 billion birr that has an increment of 30 billion birr compared with the 2017/18 budget year.

Regarding COVID 19 PM Abiy said that the government is undertaking holistic measures to manage the pandemic. He shows that the pandemic that affects billions of people in the world may be more dangerous if it expanded in Ethiopia because of its limited capacity in every direction. So far in Ethiopia over 7,400 people have tested positive for corona virus and more than 124 citizens lost their life.

“The virus has effects in every condition including the economy and we could not follow lockdowns that other countries tried to do but follow our own way,” he said.

He said that the economic sector in Ethiopia is affected by the virus outbreak; meanwhile the export has shown massive improvements for the year. He said that the export has increased by 15 percent compared with the trend of last years.