Following Ethiopia’s effective withdrawal from US-brokered negotiations around the contentious Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, the governments of both Egypt and Ethiopia are engaging in international lobbying and sharp words around their respective positions in the longstanding dispute.
Egypt unilaterally signed a draft agreement in Washington at the end of February which Ethiopia’s foreign ministry has described as “unacceptable and highly partisan” and indicated that it will bring in a new proposal on filling of the GERD's reservoir.
Construction of the $4 Billion USD GERD commenced in 2011; upon completion it will produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa's largest hydropower project. Downstream, Egypt is concerned that the dam will affect its annual share of Nile water, causing shortages.
The Egypt-Ethiopia standoff is around timing of filling the reservoir. Egypt has insisted that Ethiopia should fill the dam reservoir over a period of seven years and release 40 billion cubic meters of water every year. However, Ethiopia wants to fill the dam in 3 years and earlier this year rejected Egypt’s proposal, claiming that it does not “respect current and future rights and development plans of Ethiopia over the Nile and complicates the filling of the dam”.
Further OOSKAnews Coverage of GERD (54 Articles)