Dr. Abbas Sharaki, an Egyptian water expert, has revealed new details about the Renaissance Dam as Ethiopia and Sudan are currently experiencing major flooding that has caused large amounts of water to flow through the Blue Nile.
Sharaki told RT that Ethiopia closed two drainage gates at the moment when the flow of water through the two turbines stopped, amid the continued flow of flood waters:
Ethiopia opened the first water drain gate on March 12 this year to drain the middle passage, and then passed water through the two gates in turn before opening them together.
Sharaki pointed out that Ethiopia “raised” the middle passage in the dam to a level of 600 m above sea level, while the sides reached (610–615 m).
He said that in the period from July 11 to August 11, 2022, 9 billion m3 were accumulated, while the total volume of 17 billion m3 temporarily increased to 19.5 billion m3, and flooding sequentially from the top of the middle lane at a rate of 500-600 million m3/day during August and will decrease to 400 million m3 in September.
Satellite imagery also showed two drainage gates closing on the morning of the first day of September 2022, after about 5.5 months of opening, with no water eddies appearing in the turbines during that week, indicating they had stopped.
Cairo – Nasser Hatem
Source: RT