Tendaho Irrigation Dam has been completed after consuming 8 more years of its scheduled timeframe, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity announced. The dam is built in Afar State and has the capacity of holding 1.8 billion cubic meter water. It can also irrigate 60,000 hectares of land.

Nevertheless, the irrigation dam is currently being used to cultivate sugar cane farm laying over 25,000 hectares of land and irrigate 6,000 household farm lands.

Back in 2005 when the construction of the dam was started, it was scheduled to take only 3 years and 870 million Birr. Nevertheless, the construction took 11 years and 5.6 billion Birr – which is 5 times the initial estimated cost.

Kebede Gerba, State Minister of Water Irrigation and Electricity, attributed the delay to lack of experience and capacity of contractors. Other reasons he stated were absence of sufficient studies and financial problems.

Source: Fana Broadcasting Corporate