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Ethiopia is preparing to launch the fourth filling of its mega-dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, despite opposition from its downstream neighbour Egypt
Ethiopia is preparing to launch the fourth filling of its mega-dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, despite opposition from its downstream neighbour Egypt. The massive US$4.2 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been at the centre of a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia started the project in 2011. Egypt and at times Sudan have repeatedly asked Addis Ababa to stop filling the reservoir.
The GERD is now approaching its fourth filling. The last three fillings have not affected lower riparian states. Likewise, the rest of the fillings will not be any different, said Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, who also serves as foreign minister. He said that the project was near completion, at a conference on the Nile in Addis Ababa. The conference is also attended by a high-level ministerial team from Nile Basin nations such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Tanzania.But neither Sudan nor Egypt, the two countries located downstream of the Ethiopian dam, were not represented.
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Khartoum and Cairo had previously cited the dam as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters. While Ethiopia deems it essential for its electrification and development, Egypt, which depends on the Nile for around 97 percent of its irrigation needs, insists that the dam poses an existential threat, Khartoum’s position has been equivocal. Sudan’s leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in January that Khartoum and Addis Ababa are “aligned and in agreement” over the dam. But previously, they had expressed dissent to the dam.
