A defiant material that may lead to the eruption of a new water war across Africa, Africa has witnessed the opening of the largest hydro dam in the continent with a grand event that may precipitate the most significant ever conflict over the life force giving waters of the sacred river Nile, as the prophetic Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam project continues to further doom downstream Egypt in to a region shaking rift.
The biggest hydropower scheme in Africa was commissioned
Officially in Ethiopia, the biggest hydroelectric dam in Africa was inaugurated on Tuesday, a scheme that will enable millions of Ethiopians to obtain energy; however, it has caused the splitting of a rift with Egypt (downstream) that has rocked the region, as reported by France 24. The second most populous country, Ethiopia, with 120 million inhabitants, regards the 5 billion dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on one of the branches of the River Nile as a key to its future economic growth plans.
In the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed termed the dam a great accomplishment not just to Ethiopia but to the entire continent of Africa. It is an invitation to all black people to go and see the dam. Only this proves that as black people we can do anything we set our mind to, he said.
Started in 2011, power generation within the dam would ultimately increase to 5,150 MW compared with 750 MW that the two currently operational turbines are producing. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has indicated that Ethiopia will harness the energy to boost the access of Ethiopians to power, as well as export excess power to the region.
There is an existential threat of not having water in Egypt
The project has been developed with fear by the Ethiopian neighbours in the downstream; Egypt, which constructed its own Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s, suspects that the GERD might cut supplies of its own water in times of drought, and that it would be the cause of other upstream dams.
Egypt would remain highly alert on the situation at the Blue Nile and would take all the necessary action to ensure that it safeguards and protects the interests of the Egyptian population, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Tamim Khallaf referred to Reuters on Monday.
Ethiopia protects the sovereign rights of development
Clinging to the idea that the development of the project is a sovereign right, Ethiopia has proceeded. In 2020, it commenced the process of filling the reservoir in stages as it contended that the dam would not cause much harm to downstream nations. In July 2020, Abiy told parliament that the Renaissance Dam is not a danger, but a mutual chance. And its power and growth are sure to lift not only Ethiopia.
Unity project within the country in the presence of internal conflicts
This has been a source of national unity, especially in Ethiopia, which has, over the years, suffered an internal armed conflict of which most conflicts have been ethnic in nature, according to Magnus Taylor of the International Crisis Group think tank. The notion that Ethiopia has a right to construct a dam on its own land… and can not be bullied around by Egypt is widely something most Ethiopians would be willing to support, he said.
The launch of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is an event that is a milestone in the development of Africa, as it serves to express the vision of Ethiopia to utilize its local resources regardless of regional resistance. Even though there is the potential of the project guaranteeing millions of people’s energy security, it also introduces a questionable future in the form of Nile water diplomacy and regional stability due to the tensions with Egypt.