ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's Ministry of Water Resources said Wednesday it has completed studies of building two hydropower dams at northwest Ethiopia's Mendeya town and the Ethio-Sudanese border, respectively.

    Michael Abebe, head of dams and hydropower department with the ministry, told journalists that the ministry has conducted the studies at a cost of 3 million U.S. dollars, secured from the African Development Bank.

    The Mendeya power project is located at the junction of the Abay and Dedessa rivers.

    The concrete dam will have a 200-meter height and a 2,000 megawatt power generation capacity, said Michael.

    The project could bring an average annual income of 450 million dollars to Ethiopia, in addition to curbing floods in Mendeya areas, he said.

    It will also help prevent an average of 8.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emission from diesel power generators used at the lower Nile countries, said the official.

    The Ethio-Sudanese border hydro power project, which will have a 90-meter high concrete dam, will generate up to 1,200 megawatts of electricity, he said.

    The two projects were selected in consideration of their power generation capacity, limited pollution, as well as the number of people that will be relocated from the construction sites, he added.

    Official data show Ethiopia has economically exploitable hydropower potential of more than 30,000 mega watt. Despite Ethiopia's huge hydroelectric potential, the exploitation rate is only about 2 percent.