Home » World » Silt is piling up.. An Egyptian expert speaks of a threat to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Silt is piling up.. An Egyptian expert speaks of a threat to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

An Egyptian expert has revealed silt buildup around the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam, which threatens to deplete its current and future water supplies and could cause its life to be shortened.

Dr. Abbas Sharaki revealed to Al-Arabiya.net that all the rivers flowing from Ethiopia are characterized by huge quantities of silt, and quantities of this silt are deposited in the Blue Nile basin, amounting to about 200 million cubic meters every year, which is why it is called blue, emphasizing that this silt will cause Upon completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Storage capacity is decreasing and will gradually decrease by one billion cubic meters every 5 years.

The Egyptian expert added that the amount of settled silt will make the two current turbines stop at the low level of 565m after about 17 years, and then the rest of the turbines will be at the 595m level after 70 years, which is the default duration. of the dam, indicating that the silt could accelerate the dam’s collapse and possibly faster than this time.

erosion of basaltic rocks

Sharqi points out that the Ethiopian plateau consists of basaltic volcanic mountains that were formed in ancient geological times as a result of the presence of the Great African Rift, which divides Ethiopia into two halves, and with the mountains rising to more than 4,620 meters above sea level, this has led to heavy rains in a short season from July to September rushing from the top of the mountains, explaining that this is working hard on the erosion of the basaltic rocks and their collapse, and thus on the silt accumulation.

Shraki pointed out that basalt rocks consist of the weakest minerals, which are olefin and pyroxene, as well as the chemical elements, which are silicon, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium and manganese, which are essential minerals for plants. and therefore basalt is the most fertile for agricultural land, pointing out that about 95% of agricultural soil in Sudan and Egypt has supplied sediment and silt from Ethiopia.

Ethiopia starts second turbine for Renaissance Dam and begins producing electricity

billion cubic meters of silt in 4 years

He added that the quantities of silt in Ethiopia are increasing every year and in about 3 to 4 years about a billion cubic meters of silt accumulates, and therefore the amount of silt deposited in the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam within 45 years will be about 14 years. billion meters, indicating that for this reason Ethiopia intends to build 3 more dams on the course of the Blue Nile to accumulate silt and prevent it from reaching the Renaissance dam so that the latter continues its work.

This was revealed by a recent study prepared by an Egyptian research group New details on real water storage capacity Renaissance dam.

The study, conducted with the title: “Assessment of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam using remote sensing and geographic information systems”, and published in the World Water Journal, stated that the first storage of the dam took place in July 2020, and amounted to approximately 5 billion cubic metres, and the second filling took place in July, starting from 2021, and was equal to approximately 3 billion cubic metres, while the third, which took place from 11 July to 11 August , amounted to approximately 9 billion cubic meters, reaching a total of 17 billion cubic meters, contrary to what was announced by Ethiopia, which third storage has reached 22 billion cubic meters.

clear violation

The dam dossier raises tension between the three countries, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, as Addis Ababa is accused of unilateral filling and storage through a unilateral decision without coordination with the two downstream countries.

For its part, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry confirmed in a letter sent to the Security Council last summer that Ethiopia’s behavior constitutes a clear violation of the Declaration of Principles agreement concluded in 2015 and a serious violation of applicable international law rules , which oblige Addis Ababa as a country of origin not to infringe on the rights of downstream countries. He made it clear that Egypt will not tolerate any violation of its rights or water security, nor any threat to the capabilities of the Egyptian people, for whom the Nile River is their only lifeline.

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