Ethiopia has announced the completion of the fourth and final phase of filling the reservoir for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed revealed the report.
The GERD is a massive hydroelectric dam project on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia. Construction began in 2011, and it is designed to generate over 6,000MW of electricity, making it one of Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plants.
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Disputes
The US $5bn project is aimed at alleviating the country’s access to electricity which is currently just under 45%. The dam’s reservoir collected 4.5 billion cubic metres of water in the first filling and 13.9 cubic metres in the second phase, according to the Ethiopian Ministry for Water, Irrigation and Energy. The dam, at 145 metres high and 1.78km long, could hold as much as 74 billion cubic metres of water.
But while Ethiopia hopes to expand electricity supply to its 110 million people where 60% of them have no access to power, downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have demanded assurances that the project will not harm their water needs or make it difficult to predict flooding. Egypt and Sudan depend on the Nile waters for most of their water needs. The dam lies on the Blue Nile River in the Benishangul-Gumuz region in western Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan.
The three countries, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, have been engaged in prolonged negotiations to reach an agreement on the GERD’s filling and operation. These negotiations have faced numerous challenges and breakdowns over the years, with disputes over the pace of filling, the dam’s operation during droughts, and dispute resolution mechanisms.
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