Over 56,000 urban, rural water supply facilities completed in three years: PM

Addis Ababa, May 24, 2021 (FBC) – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has today stated that a total of 56,790 urban A total of 56,790 urban and rural drinking water supply facilities have been completed to enable access to 15,28,148 residents.

Nation’s path to prosperity has witnessed remarkable achievements in the water, irrigation and energy sector aimed enabling a dignified life to our citizens by meeting basic needs, the premier noted.

Over the past three years, Ethiopia has secured 16 Billion Birr loan has been collected from various lending institutions to avail finance for water supply and sanitation infrastructure development in 72 towns.

Gibe 3 hydropower plant (1,870 MW), the Genale Dawa 3 hydroelectric power plant (254 MW) and the Repi waste to energy plant (25MW) have been completed and become fully operational.

Currently, 4,466 MW Electric Power and the total of 19,746 km transmission lines are in operation, he added.

Regarding completion of Nationwide Mega Projects, the Prime Minister outlined that the Grand Renaissance Dam has completed 79.3pct while Koysha Hydroelectric Dam, Aisha Wind Power Plant and Aluto Langano Geothermal  have reached 45.8pct, 73.9pct, 28.3% respectively.

The Ethio-Kenya 500 KV transmission line, which is expected to boost energy sales to neighboring countries, has reached 97.8 percent.

More than 875,000 citizens have access to On-Grid electric services and more than 1,100 rural towns are enabled to access to electricity.

By solving the problems associated with the reduction of government expenditure, 4 irrigation projects namely Ribb, Gidabo, Meki- Zeway and Megech-Seraba have been completed to develop 4,044 hectares of land, benefiting 56,946 farmers.

Following the completion of 8 new irrigation dams and irrigation systems, namely Khalid Dijo, Upper Guder, Chelchel, Welmel, Ajima-Chacha, Weybo, Anger and Keto, 52,192 hectares of land will develop to benefit 104,384 farmers.

The Prime Minister further underscored that a total of 3,656.7 out of 4,302.94 hectares of Water Hyacinth were removed from Lake Tana, achieving 85% of the total removal with the participation of 396,943 people of which 73.4% are women.