Construction of Ethiopia’s Rib Dam complete

The construction of Ethiopia’s Rib Dam is finally complete. The US$160m dam, which had faced a 5-year delay has a water conservation capacity of 234 million cubic meters. The Ethiopian Construction Works business enterprise (ECWC) were in charge of the project. They started the project 9 years ago. The initial plan included finishing and delivering within four years’ time.

The cost of the mission underwent revision 4 times to reach the initial value of US$55.9m. Before arriving to that value, the amount projected in 2013 was US$103.2m and US$197.8m a year later. Inauguration of the dam is to take place next month.

According to the assignment manager Feleke Kidane, some of the situations causing the delay include design changes and shortage of required substances. They also faced delays in relocation and problems regarding useful human resources. Furthermore, required machinery and spare parts proved difficult to source.

ECWC additionally constructed a spillway to deal with cases of water overflow. This is in the form of a bridge which connects the dam and intake tower. The bridge is fitted with six gates through which the reserved water enters.

Presently, the water is raised to 1,928m above sea level. This enables the dam to reserve 141m cubic metres of water.