Ethiopia has inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Nile, with Egypt and Sudan saying the project would threaten their water supplies.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began construction in 2011 and first started producing electricity in 2022. It is located in northwestern Ethiopia, and is projected to generate over 5,000 megawatts of power.
“To our brothers, Ethiopia built the dam to prosper, to electrify the entire region and to change the history of black people,” said Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during GERD’s opening ceremony. “It is absolutely not to harm its brothers.”
Ahmed told Ethiopia’s parliament in July that GERD was a “shared opportunity” for neighbouring countries. “The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia.”
GERD’s construction cost US$5 billion, with 91% of its funding provided by the country’s central bank. It holds around 74 billion cubic metres of water and is 145 metres tall.
Around 55% of Ethiopia’s population had access to electricity in 2023. Hydroelectricity represented 97% of its electricity generation, as of 2022.
Egypt relies on the Nile for 97% of its water supply, and has argued that GERD would restrict its water access. “Egypt remains firmly committed to the full application of international law on the Nile River, and will not allow Ethiopia’s attempts to unilaterally dominate the management of water resources,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told the United Nations Security Council this week.
GERD also sits just 14 kilometres from the Sudanese border, and 110 kilometres downstream from Sudan’s Roseires Dam.
Egypt and Sudan released a joint statement condemning GERD last week, saying the dam violates international law and would threaten their water security.
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