Merowe Dam

The Merowe Dam, also Hamdab High Dam is a dam in Sudan. The dam is located on the Nile below the fourth cataract, about 350 to 400 km north of Khartoum, near the town of Karima.

Reservoir

The dam extends from the dam at the place Hamdab to the island Mograt west of Abu Hamad. The reservoir was estimated at 170 to 200 km in length before completion, with a storage space of 12.5 billion cubic meters, a surface of 476 km ² and an average depth of 26 m. The catchment area is 2.87 million km ².

Dam

The dam is a total of 9200 m long, up to 67 m high and consists of different parts:

Hydroelectric power station

Has hydroelectric power plant at the foot of the dam with ten Francis turbines rated at 1,260 MW (based on the rated power of the generators ). Each turbine has at a drop height of 43 m has a design flow of 300 m³ / s The standard capacity is at an occupancy rate of 50 percent (ie, 630 MW ) is estimated to annually 5,500 GWh. You will double the existing Sudanese electricity production about. The apparent power of ten identical generators of 140 MVA, the active factor is 0.90, the nominal voltage is 13.8 kV, the rated speed required is 100/min, it follows a number of pole pairs p = 30 Due to the high number of pole pairs, the machines have a high diameter. The whole community of the new building is part of a total of around 1,000 km of power transmission lines to Khartoum and Port Sudan and in the neighboring towns Merowe and Dongola. With the power generated in early March was started in 2009.

Irrigation

Another positive effect is planned to derive the next generation of water over about 400 km long channels and make them usable for agricultural irrigation. So is an arid area of ​​approximately 400,000 ha to be made into fertile farmland.

Contractor

As a contractor, several foreign companies are involved in the project:

• China International Water & Electric Corp.. and China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corp:. works dam, hydro- mechanics.
• Lahmeyer International ( Germany ): planning, project management, civil works.
• Alstom ( France): generators, turbines.
• Harbin Power Engineering Company and Jilin Province Transmission and Substation Project Company ( China) signed a contract for 460 million U.S. dollars for the construction of power transmission lines.

Financiers are four banks of Arab States and the China Exim Bank, which together accounted 850 million U.S. dollars. The total construction costs are estimated at $ 1.8 billion and funded by the China National Petroleum Corporation. The Chinese state oil company also funded the development of roads in Sudan. Accompanying the Merowe Dam project it financed with $ 10 million to build the first bridge over the Nile in Sudan north of the capital. The bridge was built by Chinese companies, inaugurated in January 2008, combining the two places and Merowe Karima. Investments in infrastructure, carried out since about 2000 increasingly by Chinese companies in connection with oil production or dam projects with accompanying be taken by the population as a development aid and strengthen the influence of the Chinese economy in general in the country.

Disadvantages and protests

The dam project is umstritten.Vor the rising waters of the dam already had to flee thousands of people, it is expected to be 50,000, which must be moved from the fertile valley of the Nile in the barren Nubian Desert ( see, eg, Dar al - Manasir ). Even archaeological sites dating from 5,000 years or have been flooded.

Protests against the dam led in April 2006 to at least three deaths. Between August 2006 and January 2009, the reservoir was impounded and 100 families had to abandon their homes, without any information or warning would be done by the authorities. According to reports, the victims received no support after their expulsion, were at times without food and shelter and were partially permanently homeless. Therefore, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to adequate housing called in August 2007 to a building freeze on the Merowe Dam and Kajbar until an independent investigation into the allegations would be carried out.

In early October 2008, the floodgates of the dam were closed. A part of the local population above the dam protested further and tried to protect the settlements against the rising waters of the Nile. Already 30,000 people reported to have been sold so far in total. In July 2008, foreigners and journalists access to the area was prohibited.

Against Lahmeyer International 2010 display is introduced because of " bringing about a flood " in Frankfurt in May.

Commissioning

The dam had reached its intended water level in January 2009. In early February, the first two turbines were put into operation. In March, the current production of these two turbines began. The last two turbines went according to the Sudanese government on schedule in April 2010 to the network.