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News: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister said a multi-billion-dollar mega-dam on the Blue Nile, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), is complete and will be officially inaugurated soon.
About Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)
- It is a gravity dam built on the Blue Nile River in Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan.
- The Blue Nile is a major tributary of the Nile River.
- It originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
- It was formerly known as the Millennium Dam and sometimes referred to as the Hidase Dam.
- Features
- The project to build it was started in 2011.
- Largest in Africa: It is considered Africa’s largest hydroelectric project stretching 1.8 km wide and 145 metres (475 feet) high.
- Capacity: At full capacity, the huge dam can hold as much as 74 billion cubic metres of water and could generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output.
- Issue: It has been a source of tensions with downstream nations Egypt and Sudan who worry, it will affect their water supply.
- Egypt relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water needs.
