'Sharing the Nile': The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Hello! In the next few blog posts I will be looking at the Nile, maintaining my focus on transboundary water management. 

The Nile river is a key example of a transboundary water source. It is an international river shared by 11 riparian countries, and acts as the primary water source for downstream regions; Egypt and Sudan (Ahmed and Elsanabary, 2015). In the past, Egypt has dominated control over the Nile, claiming that 2/3 of the flow is theirs based on a treaty signed with Sudan in 1959 (The Economist, 2016). However, in the last decade the population of Ethiopia overtook that of Egypt; 240 million vs 130 million respectively. This has resulted in Ethiopia’s desire to manage this water source not only to fight poverty but also to support and improve solidarity, as well as provide sustainable economic development for themselves and neighbouring regions. 

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERC)

GERC (Al Ahram Weekly, 2018)

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a large-scale development project that commenced in 2011 on the Blue Nile. The dam is going to be Ethiopia’s largest and most important power projects on the Nile and will generate 5,250 megawatts of electricity for Ethiopia and neighbouring countries. Additionally, it is expected to hold 67 billion meters cubed of water- making it the largest man-made lake in Ethiopia, providing a range of opportunities including the potential for fishery cultivation as well as the ability for Ethiopia to meet its domestic water needs (The Economist,2016).

Despite the abundant possibilities for sustainable development this dam provides Ethiopia and other countries downstream, the plan has created dispute from Egypt’s leaders who believe the creation of the dam will reduce water flow downstream, which will have severe impacts on Egypt’s population. Abdellatif, the owner of the Dal group which runs farms and irrigation in Egypt states “The Nile is the lifeline of Egypt”…"they are very concerned about anything that you do with that water”. The Nile being Egypt's only secure source of water leaves them vulnerable to developments on the river, which act as a threat to their sovereignty (BBC, 2018). For the first time, Ethiopia is combining their physical power as an upstream country and their economic power being able to fund their own dam to exert control over water resources. Unless Ethiopia can agree on a deal with Egypt and Sudan, this dam could trigger a war over water. Considering 86% of the Nile comes from the Ethiopian highlands, and Ethiopia continues to develop as a strong economic presence, Egypt’s should be prepared to have their power and control over the Nile challenged.

Integrated water resource management

For decades, the Nile Basin has faced complex challenges similar to that of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam, over proper management of the Nile water. Problems include among others “disputes and conflicts over the control and use of the Nile waters; extreme poverty, food insecurity; droughts; floods; inadequate sanitary services; unreliable electricity, water scarcity; lack of cooperation on the shared resources of the Nile basin (Belay et al. 2009). The transboundary nature of the river makes it difficult to conceptualise and control usage and cooperation over water resources, this is fundamental to how political water can be.

The next post will look at the Nile Basin Initiative, reflecting aspects of integrated water resource management to highlight that the best way to manage and control a shared water source is to maintain a cooperative relationship between governments and countries, to consider the interests of all members sharing the same resource.