“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry,” said Thomas Fuller (Gnomologia, 1732). This seems to be typically true to most of our fully unutilized rivers, and especially appropriate to the longest river of the continent - Abay Wәnz (Abay River). Although Ethiopia has got several rivers, Awash, Ak’aki, Baro, Ch’elek’lak’a, Didesa, Erer, Genale, Gibe, Omo, to mention a few, they never appeared to be very noteworthy to the country (or perhaps accentuated, as such) until recently, I guess, with the nation’s growing shortage of water and all other natural resources as well as the current global debate of alternative energy. Well, the drastic measures taken to build a gigantic hydroelectric power with our Gibe Wәnz is commendable, though. That could be a panacea to most of the now-and-then power outage that we see now. That being as it may, my today’s piece focuses on one of our potentially rich river, the Abay Wәnz (Abay River). Setting out its journey to the Mediterranea