Ethiopia rejects Arab League resolution on Renaissance Dam There has long been a conflict over water rights among the riparian countries of the Eastern Nile Basin (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia). Egypt Forced to Negotiate on Nile Dam. Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have expressed concerns over the impacts of the dam on their water supply. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Egypt's enemy or a blessing in This was an attempt at a wholesale replacement for the Nile Waters Treaties. For more on the background and history of these important relationships, see my book with former AGI Director Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Governing the Nile River Basin: The Search for a New Legal Regime., not be filled without a legally binding agreement, when the flow of Nile water to the dam falls below 35-40 b.c.m. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - jpl.nasa.gov As they consider this controversial issue, all 11 riparian countries should seek to improve relations among themselves beyond their relationship with the Nile, especially in mutually beneficial areas such as trade; educational and cultural exchanges; the management of natural resources, including water; dealing with threats to peace and security, including the suppression and prevention of terrorism and extremism; and confronting major challenges to economic growth and poverty alleviation, such as climate change, widespread illiteracy, and poor infrastructure. While this means new opportunities to develop extended irrigation-based agriculture for the Sudanese, it represents also a new threat for Egypts current Nile water utilisation (Whittington et al., 2014). Since 2015, technical reports on the potential impacts of the dam have failed to reach a consensus within the TNC (Maguid, 2017). Nile Basins GERD dispute creates risks for Egypt, Sudan, and beyond. It can help the riparian states outline principles, rights, and obligations for cooperative management of the resources of the Nile. Since its inception, there have been two, highly contentious, products. Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars. March 14, 2020, 6:57 AM. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have negative impacts not only on Egypt but also on poor communities in Ethiopia as well as on its Nile Basin neighbours Ethiopia's strategy for dam construction goes far beyond developmental goals. [35] The lack of international financing for projects on the Blue Nile River has persistently been attributed to Egypt's campaign to keep control on the Nile water share. casting the DoP as a treaty) has the potential to abrogate the Nile Waters Treaties that Egypt holds so dear. Still, if the exception was somehow activated, it would mean that Egypt remains entitled to 66% of the Nile River waters and that this figure should be used as the baseline for any future negotiations. The IPoE report recommended two studies to assess the environmental and socio-economic impacts of GERD and was interpreted by both the Egyptian and the Ethiopian government as a vindication of their respective positions. Ethiopia, however, prefers to have the flexibility to make decisions on how to deal with droughts. Test. This is on the basis of the principles of State succession as outlined in the Vienna Convention on the Succession of States (VCSS). On the surface, the 558 ft tall dam Africa's biggest hydropower project belies Ethiopia's financial muscle. when did construction of the dam begin? Ethiopia says it will take a further four to six years to fill up the reservoir to its maximum flood season capacity of 74bcm. Why is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam contentious? Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam: Ending Africa's Oldest Geopolitical Rivalry? On 5 July 2021, Ethiopia informed Egypt and Sudan that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia is undergoing its second filling. Recently, the tensions among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile have escalated, particularly after Ethiopia announced that it had started filling the GERDs reservoir, an action contrary to Egypts mandate that the dam not be filled without a legally binding agreement over the equitable allocation of the Niles waters. There are suggestions that Egyptian officials in the World Bank managed to precipitate a policy that funds would only be awarded for non-contentious water projects, thus precluding funding for the Dam. In that light, Egypt should minimize trips to Washington, D.C., New York, and Brussels, and instead use its diplomatic resources to improve its relations with the other riparian states. The researchers looked at the dynamic interactions between the Nile's hydrology and infrastructure and Egypt's economy. General view of the talks on Hidase Dam, built on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia, between Sudan and Egypt in Khartoum, Sudan on October 04, 2019. In general, the Ethiopian development philosophy rests on two pillars: mega-dams and mega-agricultural projects. Water Policy, 16(4), 595-608. More alarmingly, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak allegedly even considered bombing the Dam. grand ethiopian renaissance dam Flashcards | Quizlet Egypt faces another dam challenge - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted Match. The Nile-COM is the highest political and decisionmaking body of the NBI. On March 4, 1982, Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Tripartite National Council (TNC) was then established, consisting of members from each of the three countries with the aim of carrying through the IPoE's recommendations (Attia & Saleh, 2021). Filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile River is well under way near the Ethiopia-Sudan border. The establishment of the Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, up 145 and a storage capacity of 74 . The Zenawi concept of a Strong Ethiopia envisions the country as a powerful hydroelectric energy hub exporting electricity to Djibouti and Somalia in the east, Kenya and Uganda to the south, and Sudan to the west. Attempts to resolve the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute over the past decade have reached a deadlock. Match facts: Egypts Ahly v South Africas Mamelodi Sundowns (CAF Champions.. Kevin Harts first Egypt show cancelled 'due to local logistical issues', Match facts: Sudans Al-Hilal v Egypts Ahly (CAF Champions League), Match facts: Egypts Ahly v Cameroons Coton Sport (CAF Champions League), Egyptian Premier League results & scorers (20th matchday), Spain La Liga results & scorers (21st matchday), 13 Egyptian women on Forbes Middle East 100 Most Powerful businesswomen 2023, Egyptian Premier League results & fixtures (18th matchday), English Premier League results & scorers (23rd matchday), Prioritising the best solutions for sustainable development, A new beginning for education and beyond, Prioritizing the UN's Global Development Agenda, US-Africa Leaders Summit: Between expectations and realities. Egypt's 100 million people rely on the Nile for 90% of the country's water needs. You can revoke your consent to the site operator at any time by unsubscribing from the newsletter. Practically from the outset, the World Bank and international donors withdrew funding due to a lack of transparency, driven home when it was learned that the construction had begun without a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency in Ethiopia. Egypt has also escalated its call to the international community to get involved. But with a generation capacity of 6.45GW, the Ethiopian government quoted the project as vital to the country's economic growth. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Wikipedia The dispute over the GERD is part of a long-standing feud between Egypt and Sudanthe downstream stateson the one hand, and Ethiopia and the upstream riparians on the other over access to the Niles waters, which are considered a lifeline for millions of people living in Egypt and Sudan. (2020). Ethiopia's determination to build a major new dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), for hydropower purposes has been the flashpoint of current conflicts in the Eastern Nile Basin (Gebreluel, 2014). The Chinese donors who have agreed to fund it have performed no independent social or environmental impact reviews. They generate electricity, store water for crop irrigation and help to prevent floods. Such a meaningful resource-sharing agreement should not only resolve the conflict over water-use rights among the riparian states, but it should help define concepts such as equitable and reasonable use and significant harm, which have been used by the downstream states in their criticisms of the GERD. The 6,000-megawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, shown here in May 2016, is scheduled to begin producing electricity in 2017. Mainly, for the downstream countries, the. Second, regarding the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty, although Ethiopia was a party and although that instrument does deal with the flow of water on the Nile, its terms are strictly limited. Further, it means that this figure should be used to assess the impact of the Dam on the Egyptian economy for the purposes of calculating compensation resulting from loss of flow. Egypt has issued a public statement to that effect. In recognition of the fact that the Nile Waters Treaties had become an uncomfortable and anachronistic vestige of colonialism, ten watercourse states along the Nile (including Egypt and Ethiopia) agreed in 1999 to form the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). In terms of the current status of talks, in 2019, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin began facilitating negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia which led to some tentative progress. The GERD and the Revival of the Egyptian-Sudanese Dispute over the Nile Waters. The current global energy crisis may help in this regard in the sense that Egyptians may find the allure of discounted hydroelectric energy stronger than ever before. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - ArcGIS StoryMaps For example, in 2017, the UNSC highlighted the security risks of water stress in the Lake Chad Basin Region, affecting Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, based on a combination of water scarcity, drought, desertification and land degradation. Egyptian Water Security and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Why Before discussing the benefits, the article will brief the general technical overview of the GERDP. Von Lossow, T. & Roll, S. (2015). Although the case has been dropped, the organisations work focused international attention on the dams potential detrimental impacts on the lakes habitat. Sudan is caught between the competing interests of Egypt and Ethiopia. Although Ethiopia has argued that the hydroelectric GERD will not significantly affect the flow of water into the Nile, Egypt, which depends almost entirely on the Nile waters for household and commercial uses, sees the dam as a major threat to its water security. to hydrate farmland), it would effectively be taken from downstream states like Egypt. Despite the fact that newly independent Sudan in the late 1950s was literally forced by a dominant Egypt into a highly asymmetrical water-sharing arrangement, Sudan has rarely challenged this arrangement. It has also expressed concerns about the potential impact the initial filling of the dam will have on areas downstream. Negative impacts of the GERD - Opinion - Ahram Online In terms of putative new law, namely the Watercourses Convention and the DoP, the key principles of equitable utilisation and no significant harm seem to leave ample room to accommodate the construction of a dam for hydroelectric generation purposes. Ethiopia also seems to have the political upper hand given that the Dam is effectively a fait accompli and given that Egypts erstwhile downstream ally, Sudan, switched sides in the dispute leaving the Egyptians diplomatically isolated. However, the DoP lacks these key traits, and these omissions suggest that it may simply be a non-binding declaration designed to ease political tensions and to illuminate a way forward. It will be the largest hydropower project in Africa. However, by far the largest of these projects is the GERD, which was announced in 2010 and work on which was launched in 2011 by means of a nationwide fundraiser in which Ethiopian civil servants were reportedly obliged to volunteer a months salary to invest in GERD bonds. IDS (2013). Terms in this set (10) how long and high is the dam? It was in the hope of protecting Lake Turkana against such threats that it was listed as a World Heritage Site. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 1.1-mile-long concrete colossus, is set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa. Water scarcity is a growing problem. Ethiopian general threatens military force to defend Nile dam as negotiations with Egypt falter. It can be demand-driven, typically caused by population growth, and supply-driven, typically caused by decreasing amounts of fresh water often resulting from climate change or a result of societal factors such as poverty. The Political Deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. It can be demand-driven, typically caused by population growth, and supply-driven, typically caused by decreasing amounts of fresh water often resulting from climate change or a result of societal factors such as poverty. Although Egypt and Sudan are likely to resist efforts to include the other upstream riparians in the negotiations or to allow a regional organization, such as the NBI, to serve as an implementing organ, they must understand that the Nile River is a regional watercourse and its management must be approached from a regional perspective. Already, the United States has threatened to withhold development aid to Ethiopia if the conflict is not resolved and an agreement reached. For nearly a century, as a legacy of colonialism, Egypt enjoyed what Tekuya referred to as a hydro-hegemony over the Nile; despite Ethiopia contributing 86% to its waters. The disadvantages for Egypt and Sudan are the possibility of reduced river flow, although this is only really a problem during the years of filling the dam. The Nile riparians must understand that the river is a common resource whose effective management must be approached from a basin-wide perspective. Ethiopian opinion is divided over the need for such huge investments in hydroelectric energy when the national network is still very underdeveloped and unable to cope. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Ethiopian Challenge of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Even without taking the dam into account, the largely desert country is short of water. Link, P.M. et al. Ethiopia and Egypt Are Fighting Over the Nile River. The United States An Ethiopian national flag is seen at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Guba, Ethiopia, on February 19, 2022. An optimistic trend among todays African commentators focuses primarily on economic growth rates and pays little attention to human tolls, questions of transparency and accountability, and the sustainability of growth. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Gets Set to Open - Hiiraan Online The US has revived diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute sparked by Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project on the Nile. I agree with the delivery of the newsletter. The Dam is being built by Ethiopia on the Nile River and is fiercely opposed by Egypt. Lastly, over-year storage facilities upstream in Ethiopia will allow Sudan to increase its water use. However, Ethiopia ultimately refused to sign the draft agreement. The Untold Story of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam per year, that would constitute a drought, to push the three countries to adhere to their obligations in accordance with the rules of international law in order to reach a fair and balanced solution to the issue of the GERD, 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and 1959 Agreement. On Feb. 26, Ethiopia temporarily suspended its . It and several other large dams in Ethiopia could turn the country into Africa's hydropower hub. Concern has focused in particular on Lake Turkana, which derives 90 per cent of its water from the Omo River on which the Gilgel Gibe III Dam was built. Success on this endeavor will only occur under a legally binding regime that ensures mutually beneficial rights. Afraid that a drought might appear during the filling period, Egypt wants the filling to take place over a much longer period. On Foes and Flows: Vulnerabilities, Adaptive Capacities and Transboundary Relations in the Nile River Basin in Times of Climate Change. 497 Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source of cooperation or - USGS River Nile dam: Why Ethiopia can't stop it being filled Already, on June 19, 2020, Egyptian authorities called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to intervene after tripartite talks had failed to secure an agreement on the filling schedule for the GERD.