2016
2021
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will increase energy generation and advancement in Ethiopia, but it may have unwanted repercussions for other Nile River users.
About half of the people of Ethiopia have access to electricity, a lower percentage than in most other African countries and a far lower percentage than in most other nations throughout the world. To resolve this, the Ethiopian government started constructing a dam on heaven Nile in 2011 that will rank as Africas largest hydroelectric dam when finished in 2023.
With 3 spillways and 13 turbines, the concrete structure will rise 145 meters (475 feet) and create a reservoir that will cover 1,874 square kilometers (724 square miles) of land, a location about the size of Houston, Texas. Called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), it is expected to more than double Ethiopias electrical power output.
In addition to producing electrical power, GERD should temper destructive seasonal floods in Sudan, increase food supplies in Ethiopia by providing reliable irrigation water, and extend the life-span of other dams downstream on the Nile by trapping sediment.
In 2020, water managers started filling the reservoir, a procedure that could take from a couple of years to a years depending on weather condition conditions and how much of the Blue Niles flow the dam supervisors hold back. Fast filling could considerably decrease the water downstream considering that the Blue Nile offers 60 percent of the water that streams into the Nile.
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have actually not agreed on a schedule for filling the reservoir or a strategy for how the dam will be handled. The third filling stage will likely begin in July 2022 and is expected to record a larger volume of water than the very first 2 fills.
” Our research study underscores that the Nile Basin experiences dry and damp spells that are connected to the cycles of El Niño and La Niña,” stated Venkataraman Lakshmi, another of the studys coauthors and a professor of engineering at the University of Virginia. “Its crucial that we account for these cycles which they get constructed into the preparation procedure. We really need to have researchers, engineers, and diplomats in the very same room talking to each other about how to tackle filling and handling the tank.”
The 3rd filling stage will likely begin in July 2022 and is anticipated to capture a larger volume of water than the first 2 fills. “The very first filling phase in 2020 taken about 4.9 billion cubic meters of water and the 2nd phase added another 6 billion cubic meters. If Ethiopia proceeds to fill the GERD in five years, the fifth and fourth fillings might go beyond 25 billion cubic meters each,” explained Heggy.
Whatever the rate of filling, there will be a lot of changes to monitor from both the ground and above in the coming years. “Aswan High Dam and GERD together are capable of retaining more than 280 percent of the Niles yearly circulation,” stated Heggy. “The worlds longest river will be primarily driven by the operation of two dams instead of by natural processes.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using information from the Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & & Distribution System (LAADS) and Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE), Black Marble information from NASA/GSFC, and Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
GERD will usher in a new period and help brighten the mainly dark landscape that appears in nighttime images of Ethiopia if it works as prepared. (In the Suomi-NPP satellite composite above, keep in mind the contrast in between the darkness of Ethiopia and the brilliant path of light along the Nile River in Egypt, where World Bank information indicates that 100 percent of the population has access to electricity.) In addition to generating electrical energy, GERD should temper damaging seasonal floods in Sudan, increase food supplies in Ethiopia by supplying reputable irrigation water, and extend the life-span of other dams downstream on the Nile by trapping sediment.
By altering the rivers hydrology, the dam might have an effect on millions of people who live and farm downstream in Egypt and parts of Sudan and use the Niles water. The natural-color picture of the Niles Great Bend shown listed below underscores how much individuals of Egypt depend on the Nile: 95 percent of Egypts farmland is found within a narrow zone near the riverbanks.
March 27, 2022
In 2020, water supervisors began filling the tank, a process that might take from a couple of years to a years depending on weather condition conditions and how much of the Blue Niles circulation the dam supervisors hold back. Quick filling might substantially minimize the water downstream since the Blue Nile provides 60 percent of the water that streams into the Nile.
” While the dam will definitely have favorable results in regards to flood control and hydroelectric power, there are essential unanswered concerns about how quickly the tank should be filled, and how it will be handled long term,” said Essam Heggy, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who just recently coauthored a study evaluating the possible hydrological and financial repercussions of filling the dam at numerous rates.
” Filling the reservoir too quickly– in less than seven years– could cause measurable water lacks downstream that impact food production, particularly if the preliminary filling happens under dry spell conditions,” said Heggy. His research study shows that quick filling of the tank could lead to severe financial losses, though he notes that broadening groundwater extraction, changing the operation of Egypts Aswan High Dam, and cultivating crops that require less water might help balance out some of the effect.
February 14, 2022
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have not agreed on a schedule for filling the reservoir or a prepare for how the dam will be managed. Remote noticing researchers have actually utilized satellites to assist track developments at GERD. Satellites provides among the finest methods to keep an eye on developments due to the fact that the information are free, transparent, and readily available to all.
Since February 2022, one team led by University of Virginia scientists estimated that the GERD reservoir was less than 15 percent complete based upon satellite observations. “By integrating cloud-penetrating radar observations from the European Space Agencys Sentinel-1 satellite with a NASA digital elevation design of the terrain, we have the ability to approximate the modification of the volume of water in the reservoir,” explained Prakrut Kansara, the lead author of a research study released in Remote Sensing that detailed their strategy.
” The tank was 23 percent complete in September 2021, completion of the rainy season, however then water levels dropped some due to evaporation and water releases,” described Hesham El-Askary, an earth researcher at Chapman University and one of the research study coauthors. “During the first 2 years, we have actually seen a filling rate of approximately 11 percent per year, meaning it would take a little less than nine years to be totally full at this rate.”
The group also used information from NASAs GRACE and GPM satellites, and arises from a NASA model called the global land information assimilation system to examine the seasonal variability of rainfall, overall overflow, and overall water storage (which includes surface, groundwater, and subsurface) in the region since 2002.
