Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met and discussed with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi about the dam when he attended the leaders’ forum of neighbouring countries organized by Egypt on the stability of Sudan last July.
The leaders of the two countries had discussed the resumption of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) water filling and agreed to start the tripartite dialogue which had been suspended for the last two years.
According to this agreement, two weeks ago, the technical experts of the dam negotiators of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan met in Cairo, Egypt.
Following that, the second tripartite dialogue started today in Addis Ababa and the dam negotiators, experts and diplomats from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan participated.
Two years ago, GERD started generating power with its two turbines, and five more turbines will start generating power this year, according to the manager of the dam, Engineer Kifle Horo.
The total construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which started 12 years ago, has been completed 93 percent.
This dam, which is being built with the money contributed by Ethiopians and the government, is the largest project in Africa, generating 5,200 megawatts of power.
Two turbines of the Renaissance Dam, each with a capacity of 350 MW, have been generating power since 2020.
The dam has cost more than 180 billion birr so far and 60 billion birr will be needed to complete the remaining construction.
GERD will be completely completed in two years, and more than 40 billion cubic meters of water are currently reserved in the dam.
