Page 10 - AfrElec Week 50 2020

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

Ga’anda. rural communities all over Nigeria, using dis-
“The project is implemented by the Depart- tributed power generation with locally available
ment for International Development (DFID) resource such as solar,” he said.
with oversight function provided by the Ministry He said that 40 new mini-grid projects had
of Power,” he said. been commissioned across the country, provid-
Mamman said the projects were implemented ing reliable power supply to over 40,000 people
under a framework which provided sustainable, in off-grid areas.
reliable and affordable energy supply consistent “These projects are mostly developed through
with the nation’s commitment to achieving the public-private partnership, confirming the con-
United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals fidence of the private sector,” he said.
(SDGs). He also confirmed that the government
He added that providing reliable electric- aimed to provide 5mn households with solar
ity supply would improve the lives of people home systems under the Nigeria Economic Sus-
through improved healthcare and education as tainability Plan.
well as job creation. Mamman said the initiative was aimed at
“Our being here today reflects a deliberate increasing electricity access and reducing the
demonstration of the importance both the state effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-
and federal government attached to the provi- demic on Nigerians.™
sion of electricity in remote and underserved

HYDRO

Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt all claim to be ready

for GERD talks, but no breakthrough yet

ETHIOPIA ETHIOPIA and Sudan have agreed to try to border between Sudan and Ethiopia, which may
resume negotiations with Egypt on breaking have been the reason behind Hamdok’s recent
the deadlock around construction of the Grand visit to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Ethiopia began the construction of the GERD
The head of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, in 2011, which raised concerns mainly in Egypt
Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, and the and Sudan. In 2014 the three states began nego-
Minister of Sudan’s Cabinet of Irrigation and tiations to determine how to fill it and exploit it,
Water Resources, Yasser Abbas, said in a joint but after several attempts they are yet to sign an
statement that they had agreed to work to “try to agreement.
conclude a very lengthy process.” Egypt has voiced fears that the GERD would
Bekele and Abbas said that it was now urgent damage the country’s water supply, and has
to resume talking to Egypt with the support of insisted that measures be put in place to protect
African Union representatives in order to resolve downstream countries in case of drought during
the differences between the parties. the dam’s filling process.
Bekele also spoke to Sudanese Prime Minister The Ethiopian government said in July that it
Abdalla Hamdok on pushing forward attempts had completed the first stage of filling the reser-
to reach agreement on filling the GERD with voir adjacent to the 6.350-GW dam.
water from the Nile and to reach a final legal This provoked sharp criticism from Egypt
agreement on regulating the river’s flow in and caused concern in Sudan.
future. In November, Addis Ababa said that the dam
Meanwhile, Egypt said that it was also keen to would begin generating power in June 2021,
continue talks, but only if official observers, such which caused another rejection from Egypt and
as from the AU and even the US, had an effective also from Sudan’s Hamdok, who argued that
role in the negotiation process. it should not be operated without a trilateral
Abbas Sharaqi, professor of geology and agreement.
water resources at Cairo University, told Egyp- The dam aims to bring electricity and water to
tian media that Sudan has confirmed that the 60mn Ethiopians and to turn the country into a
dam posed a flood threat to the country. major power exporter.™
Sharaqi said that relations were tense on the

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