Gilgel Gibe River
Gilgel Gibe River is a tributary of the Gibe River in southwest Ethiopia. It flows in an arc through the south of the Jimma Zone, defining part of the Zone's boundary with that of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region west of the Omo River as it turns north. It then joins the Gibe River less than ten miles from its own confluence with the Omo.
Hydroelectric potential
Plans to develop the hydroelectric potential of the Gilgel Gibe river were first announced in the 1980s.
Construction of the Gilgel Gibe I Power Station started in 1986 and was completed in 2004, after being interrupted in the early 1990s. The plant includes a reservoir of about 850 cubic meters created by a dam about 40 meters high. The Gilgel Gibe river flows are therefore returned to the natural bed after having transformed the energy of the water into electricity through a powerplant equipped with three Francis turbines.
The resettlement program required moving about 3,000 people to new areas including the people living under or near the power line connecting the power plant to Addis Ababa. Employing 307 expatriates from 32 countries and 4,015 local people, the plant was completed at a cost of about two billion birr and became Ethiopia's largest power plant, with a capacity of 184 megawatts.
Gibe River
The Gibe River is a tributary of the Omo River. Located in southwest Ethiopia, it is not navigable, like almost all rivers in the country.
Overview
The Gibe rises west of the Chomen swamp (specifically, from Gudeyya Bila woreda, which is located in the East Wellega Zone,Oromia Region), flowing to the southeast to its confluence with the Omo at 8°19′N 37°28′E / 8.317°N 37.467°ECoordinates: 8°19′N 37°28′E / 8.317°N 37.467°E. Its tributaries include the Amara, Alanga and Gilgel Gibe rivers. The southern drainage area of the Gibe includes the historic Gibe region, where a number of the former kingdoms of the Oromo and Sidama peoples were located.
Although its banks and watershed have been inhabited since time immemorial, it is first mentioned in the Royal Chronicle of Emperor Sarsa Dengel, who campaigned to the north of it in 1566. The first European to see the Gibe was the Portuguese António Fernandes, who crossed the Gibe in 1613 as he left Ennarea and entered Janjero, and later described it as carrying "more Water than the Nile". No other European visited the Gibe until the 19th century, so his account remained the authoritative account over the next centuries and preferred to information obtained from native travellers.
