Ethiopia officially inaugurates Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on Tuesday, a project that will provide energy to millions of Ethiopians while deepening a rift with downstream Egypt that has unsettled the region.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second most populous nation with a population of 120 million, sees the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on a tributary of the River Nile as central to its ambitions for economic development.
Begun in 2011, the dam’s power generation should eventually rise to 5,150 MW from the 750 MW that its two active turbines are already producing.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said Ethiopia will use the energy to improve Ethiopians’ access to electricity while also exporting surplus power to the region.
Ethiopia’s downstream neighbours, however, have watched the project advance with dread.
Egypt, which built its own Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s, fears the GERD could restrict its water supply during periods of drought, and could lead to the construction of other upstream dams.
It has bitterly opposed the dam from the start, arguing that it violates water treaties dating to the British colonial era and poses an existential threat.
Egypt, with a population of about 108 million, depends on the Nile for about 90% of its fresh water.
Egypt would continue to closely monitor developments on the Blue Nile and “exercise its right to take all the appropriate measures to defend and protect the interests of the Egyptian people,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tamim Khallaf told Reuters on Monday.
Sudan has joined Egypt’s calls for legally binding agreements on the dam’s filling and operation, but could also benefit from better flood management and access to cheap energy.
Credit: cnn.com
