Gilgel Gibe River

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Gilgel Gibe River (also known as the Jimma Gibe) is a tributary of the Gibe River in southwest Ethiopia. It flows in an arc through the south of the Jimma Zone, defining part of the Zone's boundary with the enclave of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region west of the Omo River as it turns north, then joins the Gibe River less than ten miles from its own confluence with the Omo.

[edit] Hydroelectric potential

Plans to develop the hydroelectric potential of the Gilgel Gibe river were first announced in the 1980s.

Construction of the Gilgel Gibe plant started in 1986 and was completed, after being interrupted in the early 90's, in 2004. The plant includes a quite relevant reservoir of about 850 Mm3 created by a dam about 40 m high. The Gilgel Gibe river flows are therefore returned to the natural bed after having tranformed the energy of the water into electricity through a powerplant equipped with three Francis turbines.

The resettlement action required moving about 3,000 people to new areas also including the people living under or near the power line connecting the power plant to Addis Ababa.^[1] Employing 307 expatriates from 32 countries and 4,015 local people, the plant was completed at a cost of about two billion birr and became Ethiopia's largest power plant, with a capacity of 184 megawatts.^[2]

The second phase of the development of the Gibe-Omo hydropower potential started with the Gibe II plant. The flows, regulated by the Gilgel Gibe dam, will be conveyed through a 26 km long hydraulic tunnel, the longest in Africa, to the Omo river about 150 km downstream of gibe I dam. The plant will produce about 420 MW without requiring resettlement actions.

This second phase was 35% complete in April 2006 and is scheduled for completion December 2007,^[3]

The third phase of the Gibe cascade, known as Gibe III, is foreseen as the largest hydropower plant in Africa with an installed power of about 1870 MW. The plant, including a 240 m high dam on the Omo river, has been awarded to Salini Costruttori of Italy with the engineering of Studio Pietrangeli and supervision of ELC-COB. The plant is expected to be operational in 2011. Together, all three plants, operated by EEPCO, are expected to increase Ethiopia's electrical coverage from its current 17% to 50%, as well as supply electricity to the neighboring countries of Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya.^[4]