The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is experiencing rapid population growth and this is placing ever greater demands on the country’s already limited water resources due to increasing needs for crop irrigation, drinking water and hydroelectric power.
Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile River, is located at a height of 1,786 metres above sea level in Ethiopia’s North West Highlands. As the country’s largest lake, with a surface area of more than 3,100 km2, it is also an essential source of water. Given its importance the lake needs to be carefully managed to maximise the economic, social and environmental benefits it can provide.
Italdraghe, Italy’s leading dredger manufacturer, thanks to World Bank funding, will be supplying a new cutter suction dredger to the Ethiopian Ministry of Water and Energy. Based initially at Bahir Dar, this dredger will be used primarily to dredge the seven industrial ports situated around the edge of the lake, which is up to 14 metres deep in places.
The SGT 250 cutter suction dredger, designed and built in Italdraghe’s shipyard on the Adriatic coast, is 23.70 metres long and 4.40 wide and is able to dredge down to 7.5 metres. It features a Draghe Lario dredging pump and IVECO C90 engine (280 kW at 2,000 rpm) as well as a 10 kVA generator.
The dredger also boasts a spud carriage with a travel of 2000mm and a tilting spud system. Its extremely comfortable fully-fitted out operator cabin offers all-round vision and an impressive range of instrumentation including production measuring equipment.
Having successfully passed its pre-shipment tests and inspections it is already on its way to Djibouti from where it will travel overland to Lake Tana in the Amhara region. Following on from dredger assembly and commissioning, Italdraghe technicians will run an onsite training course for the local dredger operators to familiarise them with the equipment.
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Press Release, December 3, 2013