Addis Abeba — The Addis Abeba City Administration has signed an agreement with the Italian company WeBuild, formerly Salini Impregilo, for an amount of US$11 million loan secured from the World Bank to help carry out the maintenance and improvement works on the Legedadhi and Dire dams. The former alone supplies up to 40% the city's water.

The Mayor of Addis Abeba, Adanech Abiebie, said during the signing of the agreement that the city administration was working to to increase the water supply of the city, including by building new water projects and maintaining the existing ones.

The reservoir of the Legedadhi dam had served for 50 years without adequate maintenance, she said, and the agreement is signed so that the dam could serve for more than fifty years. The dam was built by the Salni company, now renamed WeBuild, and that a decision was made to conduct the maintenance and improvement works by the same company.

According to the agreement, WeBuild will carry out the repair and improvement work of Legedadhi Dam, including the excess water drainage gates, emergency water control, water drainage from the dam to the filter station, repair and improvement work, the Addis Abeba Water and Sewage Authority chief Zerihun Abate said. The excess water discharge gates and the supply lines from the dam to the refinery station has been in service for half a century and some malfunctions had caused disruptions in services, he said.

Zerihun cautioned that if the current malfunction was not repaired immediately, the existence of the dam will not only be in serious danger, but will also create a serious flood risk for the people living downstream.

It is expected that the the repair and improvement works will extend life of the dams for another 50 years, and and will increase the water production capacity of Leghadadhi dam by 30, 000 cubic meters per day. The completion of the repair is expected to take 18 months, Adanech said.