Tensions Rise As Ethiopia's Huge Blue Nile Dam Continues To Fill - It Will Take Seven Years To Do So

[hatrack]

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, situated snuggly between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan on the Blue Nile, has brought years of controversy to the Horn of Africa. Adding to that tension, water started pooling in the dam’s reservoir in July, absent an agreement between the three countries on how the process to fill the dam would proceed. Construction on the massive dam, Africa’s largest hydropower project, began in early 2011, yet conflict over water access, energy, and natural rights between the three countries is ongoing.

After years of intermittent negotiations, talks resumed in June this year with a hope that the countries could come to a compromise before Ethiopia began to fill the reservoir. No understanding was reached. An agreement facilitated by the United States and the World Bank was almost concluded in February this year, yet Ethiopia declined to sign the drafted agreement, claiming that the United States overstepped its observer roll and favored Egypt. The main sticking points are the procedures for operating the dam during dry periods and how disputes will be resolved.

Ethiopia plans to use the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile, for energy generation and economic development, according to the International Crisis Group. Due to the upcoming rainy season, the country deemed filling the reservoir a priority. Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan fear this work will limit their access to water and flood security respectively, though Sudan could gain from the dam’s hydropower as well. Ethiopia noted that the dam will take seven years to fill, but construction should be completed by 2022 or 2023. Water is already high enough to begin testing two of its turbines.

Half of Sudan is desert, and the country’s irrigation minister claims that flows from the Blue Nile have dropped 90 million cubic meters per day since Ethiopia began filling the dam. Egypt, nearly of all which is desert, depends on the Nile for 90 percent of its water needs. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed in February that the country would protect its Nile water supply by all available means.

EDIT

https://www.circleofblue.org/2020/world/hotspots-h2o-tensions-rise-in-horn-of-africa-as-ethiopia-fills-controversial-dam/

[Squinch]

1. That's a war waiting to happen.