(5 minutes read)
- Ethiopia began generating electricity from its mega-dam on the Blue Nile on Sunday, a milestone in the controversial multi-billion dollar project. www.trendsnafrica.com has reported that yesterday (21st February)
- Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, accompanied by high-ranking officials, visited the power station to inaugurate plant and to see how the generation process was launched
- It is a good news for trouble torn Ethiopia that its prestigious project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa has started functioning
Ethiopia began generating electricity from its mega-dam on the Blue Nile on Sunday, a milestone in the controversial multi-billion dollar project. www.trendsnafrica.com has reported that yesterday (21st February)
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, accompanied by high-ranking officials, visited the power station to inaugurate the plant and to see how the generation process was launched. It is good news for troubled Ethiopia that its prestigious project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa has started functioning. It is now becoming a star attraction of the East African country’s pride, which unfortunately got fractured in the ongoing conflicts in the northern side of the country-Tigray.
The project has a long history coupled with elements of disputes. The downstream nations of Nile -Egypt and Sudan- aired their apprehensions on the project when the work started in 2011. It was initiated under former prime minister Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012. Many contributed including civil servants. Also, the government had issued dam bonds for financing the project, which entailed a cost of upwards of US$ 4.2 billion. The project also caught up in many scandals relating to corruption, which led to slow progress of the project. if it goes to the credit of Abiy Ahmed to fast track the project. He has many things to gain from that. First, he has to show his countrymen and others, mainly his critics that he means business. He also has to silence his distractors that the development projects are being fast tracked, which can give a measure of confidence among the foreign investors and multilateral organizations that the country is progressing in the right direction.
Ethiopia pins a lot of expectations on the project. When fully functional, the GERD will generate 5000 megawatt of electricity . That means the generation capacity of the project will be doubled, enabling the country to sell the surplus power to its power deficit neighbours. The dam will have 13 turbines. But only one is functional now with an installed capacity of 375 megawatts. A second will come online within a few months. The dam will become fully functional only in 2024.
The disputes surrounding the dam are refusing to go away, despite the interventions of the US first followed by African Union. Egypt sees the dam as an existential threat. Over 97 percent of Egypt’s irrigation and drinking water are sourced from the Nile River. Sudan is pinning hopes that hopes that the project will regulate annual flooding. But at the same time, it fears that its own dams could be harmed without agreement on the GERD’s operation.
While Egypt and Sudan are still clamouring for an expeditious settlement of thorny issues surrounding the dam, a clear winner in the game is Addis Ababa and its young prime minister Abiy Ahmed. The Nobel Prize winner, who lost his sheen recently as a messenger of peace in the midst of rebellion in Tigray is seemingly trying to address his countrymen by showcasing the beneficial impact of the project. Can he stem the domestic dissension which stole many precious lives and made thousands leave the country? If he can, that will work to his advantage since he is one of the the youngest African leaders and his contemporaries in the region are several years elder to him. He holds the potential to emerge as a strong African leader in the cast of Nelson Mandela or people of his ilk.
