The main Dam at the Kesem Kebena sugar irrigation project has successfully retained water. The current water reserve in the dam retained in the last weeks of the rainy seasons is enough to irrigate a 20 thousand hectare sugarcane plantation in the Afar Regional State said Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister for Water and Energy.
The Water Works Construction Enterprise has been working around the clock to finish the project by the end of the rainy season it was noted.
The dam which has the capacity to retain 500 million cubic meters of water will be completely finished in the coming weeks according to Alemayehu.
The water retained at present is sufficient for irrigation purposes as more water enters the dam as the rain continues to fall as the rainy season ends he added.The dam and irrigation project is a 2.6 billion birr venture which was launched nearly seven years ago. The project includes the development of 20 thousand hectares of land for irrigation a Kesem, Bolhamo and Kebena for cultivating sugarcane plantation.
10 thousand hectares of the irrigated land will be given to planters to cultivate the cane for the factory which will be managed by the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.
The construction of the sugar factory, which is expected to be finalized in September 2013, will have the capacity to crush 10 thousand tons of cane every day. The Sugar Corporation is currently constructing and preparing to erect more than ten new sugar factories at a cost of 80 billion birr in the coming five years.
Source: Capital
