Ethiopia Moves Forward with Dam Construction

The Nile River, more than 4000 miles long, is a vital source of water and transportation for many African countries. (Wikimedia)

The Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation, and Energy informed the public that the two bottom outlets of what will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), were completed and fully operational on April 18. Such an update has heightened Egypt, Sudan, and other downstream, riparian countries’ worries regarding their countries’ respective water access and safety: such fast construction will likely yield major changes in the Nile River’s water levels and general supply, while also raising key political questions.

The first filling of the dam in July 2020, allowed Ethiopia to store 4.9 billion cubic meters of water. While this basin put pressure on Egypt’s already water-scarce environment and population needs, the dam construction set to occur in July will result in the withholding of almost three times as much water. This infrastructural development should provide electricity to almost two-thirds of Ethiopia’s population, and it is speculated to produce a significant number of jobs.

However, according to Yasir Abbas, the Sudanese Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, the completion of the GERD directly threatens the lives and agriculture of about 20 million Sudanese people due to the danger of flooding. Egyptian authorities, on the other hand, fear that, by filling Ethiopian reservoirs with water from the Nile, the flow to tributaries downstream will slow and perhaps even dry up. Such a change in water availability could be fatal to more than 90 percent of the country’s population.

Egypt and Sudan have also repeatedly voiced concerns over how long the dam construction should take and how to make legally binding logistical agreements, regarding issues such as how much water would be released in the case of drought. Both countries believe the dam should be constructed over a period of 12 to 20 years in order to safely determine how water levels will be affected, and therefore how the dam will affect other riparian countries.

The African Union has failed to help the three countries reach an agreement, so they are seeking help from outside the continent. This move has been the source of another point of disagreement: who this third party will be. While it would be geographically and politically logical to keep such discussions within Africa—which is what Ethiopia supports—“the African strength to enforce the agreement on its own is limited.” Thus, more powerful countries such as the U.S. and those in the European Union have been recommended by Egyptian and Sudanese authorities to play the role of the “third party.”

The final filling of the dam is scheduled to be during the rainy season in Ethiopia, namely July. While Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claims that the country has no intention to harm these countries, the country refused to compromise on its construction plans at recent years’ dam negotiations, which is one of the reasons why the dam’s upcoming construction is so controversial.

Such unproductive negotiations led Egypt and Sudan to create a quasi-coalition with other countries located on the Nile’s coasts, downstream of Ethiopia. The most politically significant ties made those far are those with South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, and the Republic of Congo, although seven others rely heavily on the Nile as well. Such a unification of governments has resulted in their planning of water resource development systems and a search for alternative water resources this April. Egypt has agreed to fund rainwater harvesting dams and underground water extraction technology in these four countries.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni adopted a larger role in the negotiations recently, but seeing no agreement or agreed-upon third party, he is asking Egypt and Sudan to consider how they may instead get their water from the Congo River. This is certainly a safer shift in gears considering the negotiations have already been stalled for four years and the dam construction is continuing forward regardless.