Size of Ethiopian Dam's 4th filling is 24B cubic meters: Egyptian geologist

CAIRO – 17 September 2023: Professor of Geology and Water Resources at Cairo University Abbas Sharaky posted on Facebook Sunday that the size of the fourth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) stood at 24 billion cubic meters, which is more than those of the previous ones combined.

In the first filling, 4.9 billion cubic meters were held, while in the second and third, the amount was three billion cubic meters and nine billion cubic meters, respectively. As such, the reservoir currently contains 41 billion cubic meters with a height of 625 meters above sea level.

Sharaky revealed that the eastern drainage gate had been open since January 8 until the end of the fourth filling, while the western gate was opened for a while but got closed at the beginning of September.

The geologist said that the rain season would be over in a few weeks. During which, 300 million cubic meters of water will be crossing "daily" over the dam towards Sudan that began holding its annual share of 18.5 billion cubic meters.

The rest will head to Egypt's High Dam by mid-October. Also, throughout the year, 12 billion cubic meters will arrive when the turbines operate or by opening the drainage gates.

Ethiopia announced on August 10 completing the fourth and last filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), although the dispute with Egypt and Sudan had not been settled. 

The dispute among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia dates back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building the dam; Egypt voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters].

Constructions in the Grand Renaissance Dam started on April 2, 2011 at a cost of $4.8 billion. It was built by the Italian construction and engineering company Salini Impergilo. The dam is located on the Blue Nile with a planned reservoir capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, and was expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of power.

However, it is estimated to generate only 3,000 megawatts, as the number of turbines to be installed has been reduced to 13 turbines down from 16. Nevertheless, only two turbines have been installed so far.