Lake Giba is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

under construction at the border of the Inderta; Kilte Awula'ilo and

Dogu’a Tembien Dogu'a Tembien (, "Upper Tembien", sometimes transliterated as Degua Tembien) is a woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is named in part after the former province of Tembien. Nowadays, the mountainous district is part of the Southeastern Tigray ...

''woredas'' of the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The

earthen dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...

that holds the reservoir is under construction in 2020. It will collect the water from the catchments of

Sulluh Sulluh is a river of northern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains of Mugulat (3298 metres above sea level), it flows southward to Giba River which empties finally in the Tekezé River. Future Lake Giba will occupy the plain where Sulluh, Genfel and ...

River (969 km²),

Genfel Genfel is a river of northern Ethiopia. Rising on the foot of the Atsbi horst at 2253 metres above sea level, it flows southwestward to Giba River which empties finally in the Tekezé River. Future Lake Giba will occupy the plain where Sulluh, ...

River (733 km²) and Agula'i River (692 km²).

Dam characteristics

The dam is aimed to provide drinking water to Mekelle and to regulate the river flow. * Dam height: 80 metres * Dam crest length: 1000 metres

Capacity

* Original capacity: 350 million m³ * Reservoir area: 9 km³ Average annual sediment input to the reservoir by the main rivers was calculated as 3.8 million tonnes: *

: 862,410 t *

: 364,301 t * Agula'i River: 2,618,528 t

Flooding

The dam will occupy the wide valley bottom at the river confluences, which is currently occupied by farmlands and bushlands. The reservoir will extend into the lower Genfel and Suluh gorges, in a place called Shugu’a Shugu’i. No people are permanently living in the area that will be flooded. Current dryland villages Ch’in Feres (in Inderta), Addi Atereman and Worgesha (in

) will become lakeshore villages, and Genfel church in the homonymous gorge will be on the edge of Lake Giba.

Anticipated seepage

The lithology of the dam building site is Antalo Limestone. Part of its water is anticipated to be lost through seepage; the positive side-effect is that this will contribute to

groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in ...

in the downstream areas.

References

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Giba Gilberto Amauri de Godoy Filho, known as Giba (born 23 December 1976), is a Brazilian former professional volleyball player who played as an outside hitter. For much of the 2000s, he was widely regarded as one of the best volleyball players in t ...

Tigray Region Dogu'a Tembien