Ethiopia Monday announced preparedness to launch second round land clearing activities to fill the reservoir of its massive dam for the second time.
Accordingly, a total of 4854 hectare of land will be cleared within 30 days for the second phase of water filling operation to be commenced by the coming July, 2021.
The water volume to be filled this Ethiopian rainy season is expected to be four-fold of what the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam retained in July last year.
Beshir Abdurahim, an official of the Benshangul Gumuz Regional State where dam is located, said thousands of youths will be engaged in clearing trees, bushes and stones from the land behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The GERD’s reservoir is designed to hold a maximum of 74 billion cubic meters of water when filling operation is completed.
Ethiopia’s move to fill the dam’s reservoir next July faced strong opposition by Egypt which claimed the horn African nation should not fill the dam before it reaches tripartite agreement with Egypt and Sudan.
