Premier Inaugurates Welmel Irrigation Project, Lays Foundation for Chelchel

ENA.February 4/2020 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed inaugurated today the Welmel river irrigation development, while laying foundation stone for the Chelchel dam and river irrigation development project.

The Welmel river irrigation development project has the capacity of watering 11,000 hectares of land to benefit more than 22,000 farmers. The project is currently benefiting 1,123 farmers by watering 400 hectares of land.

The irrigation project is built over Welmel River in Bale Zone of Oromia region.   

The Prime Minister also lay foundation for the Chelchel dam and river irrigation development project that will be executed with a budget of 2.8 billion birr to benefit 8,000 semi-pastoralists and farmers.

The Chelchel dam and river irrigation development project is aimed to ensure food security and job creation in Raayituu and Gindhiir woredas. 

The dam will rest on 4154.5 kms of space while covering 326 hectars of land.