Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the 1.26 billion birr Gidabo Irrigational Dam, located between the Oromia and SNNP Regional States (Southern Ethiopia) on 3 February.
Speaking at the inauguration, Prime Minister Abiy stressed his government’s plan to focus on irrigation farming mobilizing local resources. Considering the government’s priority of agriculture & strengthening irrigation projects, he emphasizes that similar projects will bring together communities from different regions.
“It is a shame to beg wheat and engage ourselves in throwing stones to each other,” PM Abiy said, stressing the need to avoid wasting precious time and resources fighting because over political and ethnic differences.
“We need more of such irrigation dams to produce and feed wheat instead of fighting each other begging wheat,” he said. He also indicated that the country should focus on what it already has such as water, arable land, and labor, instead of trying to industrialize using external loan and aid.
The dam can create jobs for up to 20,000 skilled youth and generates income addition to 10, 850 households engaged in farming and agro-pastoralists, according to Engineer Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s water and Energy Minister.
PM Abiy also stressed similar irrigation projects, which link the people of two different regions [Oromia and Southern region], should be replicated to strengthen bondage between the people in different regions such as between Amhara and Tigray.
The Gidabo water used to create a swamp area of 6,000 hectares before the irrigation dam was built, according to Engineer Abdulfeta Taju, Gidabo project head, who also indicated that the dam could also serve for fishing.
Launched nine years ago, Gidabo irrigation dam has cost the country over 1.14 billion birrs (around $41 million) mainly because of design revision, which increased the irrigation capacity from 7,000 hectares to 13,000 hectares. The investment includes installation of over 7 kilometers of concrete canal, according to Engineer Abdulfeta.
