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World Bank to Finance Ethiopian Hydropower Plant

The World Bank has expressed an interest in financing the Halele-Werabesa Hydropower plant in Ethiopia. The bank is interested in fully financing the 700 million birr project according to, Guang Zen Chen World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation will submit a proposal to secure the funding to the bank’s governing body after some discussions said Chen.

Experts from the World Bank carried out a field visit to the prospective site for the project and reviewed the feasibility study before submitting the application for financing.

The project is expected to begin to in 2013 and commence operations in 2018 according to Miheret Debebe, Chief Executive Officer of the EEPCo.

The Halele-Werabesa hydropower plant project is ideal for financiers because it is to be a power station close to Addis Ababa and because the construction of the dams is expected to relatively easy said Mihret.

Further amends and revisions to the original feasibility study to meet the requirements of the bank he explained.

Amendments to the feasibility study will involve further geological studies to update the study previously conducted and to prepare for implementation.

Source:The Reporter