Construction of the US$224M Tekeze hydro dam in Ethiopia has begun, with the participation of China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation (CWHEC). CWHEC will build the main concrete dam for the Tekeze hydro power project.
Construction of the 185m high dam and installation of the 300MW hydro power plant is expected to take five years to complete. The Tekeze river is a tributary of the Nile, running through the northern Tigray region and then into Eritrea.
CWHEC won the contract in June 2002, beating bidders from Germany, Italy and Japan, to build the dam for the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.