As The Indian Ocean Newsletter disclosed last week
(see alert sent to subscribers on 05 February 2010), the largest hydro-electric dam in Ethiopia, Gilgel Gibe II, is still out of action and will probably remain so for at least two more months due to a serious problem in the duct taking water from the Gibe I to the Gibe II generating station. Inaugurated on 13 January this year by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini, this dam suffered from a technical problem very soon afterwards, on 25 January. When the first generator in the Gibe II station was switched on, it was impossible to synchronise it with the national electricity grid due to a loss in load caused by insufficient pressure in the water brought in by this tunnel. It transpired that a section of the 26 km tunnel had collapsed about 9 km from its end, but the fault had not been detected before the power generator was switched on. The damages consist of a fissure about 600 metres long that allowed several boulders to crash through. The repair work is expected take at least two months. The most serious aspect is that the incident is still inexplicable for the engineers working for the Italian firm Salini that built the hydro-electric dam.
The Ethiopian government has so far succeeded in maintaining a total black-out of information on the fault afflicting Gibe II. Because the authorities were counting on bringing this power station into service before the general election in May 2010. They now fear that because of these further delays they will have to continue power outages before the election.
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