The latter, in Article 2(4), allocated acquired rights of 66% of Nile water to Egypt and 22% to Sudan (with the remaining 12% attributed to leakage). Thus, as with the Watercourses Convention and the CFA, the DoP does not offer a clear legal resolution to the dispute. While such dams also come with long-term benefits to local populations, the chief beneficiary will always be the state, which reaps profits from the sale of surplus electricity. They generate electricity, store water for crop irrigation and help to prevent floods. Second came the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP) which concerned the Dam specifically (rather than the Nile more broadly). Another difficulty for Egypt is that making this argument (i.e. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - ArcGIS StoryMaps The GERD and the Revival of the Egyptian-Sudanese Dispute over the Nile Waters. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Fact Sheet Link, P.M. et al. With regard to the mega-dams, the Gilgel Gibe III Dam and the GERD speak volumes on the substance of Zenawis political ideology. Lastly, over-year storage facilities upstream in Ethiopia will allow Sudan to increase its water use. Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan reach 'major common understanding' on dam. It and several other large dams in Ethiopia could turn the country into Africa's hydropower hub. Learn the history of Toronto from the city's official website. Egypt fears Ethiopia Renaissance Dam threatens water supply The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is estimated to cost close to 5 billion US dollars, about 7% of the 2016 Ethiopian gross national product. The colonial powers have departed and so to continue to enforce treaties agreed based around their interests would be irrational. It too has legal arguments it could adduce in support of its position that the Dam is permitted under international law. 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. An agreement between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is within reach, with the United Nations standing ready to support talks and the African Union-led process to settle remaining differences, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs told the Security Council in a 29 June videoconference meeting*. Could the Nile dispute be an opportunity to boost freshwater technology? Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam: Ending Africa's Oldest Geopolitical Rivalry? The treaties also purported to give Egypt veto power over upstream projects. Egypt, fearing major disruptions to its access to the Niles waters, originally intended to prevent even the start of the GERDs construction. In the relatively unlikely scenario that the above points failed, Ethiopia could argue that there has been such a change of circumstances since the Nile Waters Treaties were concluded that they ought to be terminated. However, this threatens the basin's long-term sustainability (as water use expands beyond what is environmentally feasible) and suboptimal in terms of capital allocation (as higher water use upstream may make downstream projects uneconomical (Swain, 2011). This is an intergovernmental partnership to provide a forum for consultation and coordination for the sustainable management and development of shared water. This is because it is traditionally understood to refer to waterways that form intrinsic parts of international boundaries. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - ArcGIS StoryMaps The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) constitutes a real crisis for the Egyptian regime, where Ethiopia several times blamed Egypt for the failure of negotiations conducted between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia on the dam. Given the importance of water to Ethiopian agriculture, it resulted in the tragic irony that, as Thurow put it, the land than feeds the Nile is unable to feed itself. The status quo started to change when Ethiopia began construction of the Dam, just east of its border with Sudan, in 2011. Kandeel, A. Huddersfield Repository - University of Huddersfield Ethiopian Renaissance Dam & Its implications on Egypt Egypt, fearing major disruptions to its access to the Nile's waters, originally intended to prevent even the start of the GERD's construction. Who Is Financing Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam? Also, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry later held the Egyptian side accountable for failure of these negotiations. That seems unlikely given that the DoP concerns the Dam alone and was agreed only between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan; whereas the Nile Waters Treaties concern the whole Nile Basin and involve many more states. Review a brief history of copyright in the United States. The $4 billion hydroelectric dam . Download PDF 1.40 MB. Even then, the initial studies did not extend beyond the borders with Kenya. Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has the second largest population in the continent. Ethiopia, however, prefers to have the flexibility to make decisions on how to deal with droughts. However, another trend stresses the need to approach the question from a broader and more holistic perspective. (DOC) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Academia.edu This dam, set to be the largest in Africa in terms of power capacity, continues to cause disagreement between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on filling and operation strategies. Ethiopia has never 'consumed' significant shares of the Niles water so far, as its previous political and economic fragility in combination with a lack of external financial support, due to persistent Egyptian opposition to projects upstream, prevented it from implementing large-scale projects. At this point, though, the GERD is nearly completed, and so Egypt has shifted its position to trying to secure a political agreement over the timetable for filling the GERDs reservoir and how the GERD will be managed, particularly during droughts. In the modern era, the US used water to blackmail Egypt. The controversy over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Brookings Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. A regional framework for the management of the Nile already existsthe Nile Basin Initiative mentioned abovewhich is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that was launched in 1999. Egypt and Ethiopia have once again locked horns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. Nile Basins GERD dispute creates risks for Egypt, Sudan, and beyond. Egypt had asked the UNSC 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. Egypts repeated references to the rules of international law is part of an effort to maintain its so-called natural and historical rights that were established and reaffirmed by the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and 1959 Agreement between Egypt and Sudan, respectivelytreaties many of the other involved parties reject as anachronistic and untenable. Monday January 2, 2017. European countries including Italy, Belgium and especially the UK controlled the Nile as part of colonisation and the broader Scramble for Africa. These colonising states used the tactic of concluding treaties (often at gunpoint) to secure their interests and, in this case, essentially prohibit upstream states from using their own waters. 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. For example, Ethiopians and Egyptians are more likely to understand and appreciate the challenges that they face, particularly in the areas of water security, climate change, food production, and poverty alleviation, if they regularly interact with each other and engage in more bottom-up, participatory and inclusive approaches to the resolution of their conflicts. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars. One question that keeps coming up is: Will Ethiopia be willing to release enough water from the reservoir to help mitigate a drought downstream? Ethiopia starts generating power from River Nile dam - BBC News (2011). This is good news for Egypt and Sudan as hydropower means little actual water withdrawal. Environmental Impacts Of Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam On The 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. Search for jobs related to Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 22m+ jobs. The Chinese-financed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), despite a recent breakdown in talks on Africa's largest development project, risks powering up a range of downstream tensions and rivalries. Ethiopia rejects Arab League resolution on Renaissance Dam 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. The 10-year filling time of GERD will likely contribute to fastened salinisation in Egypt. Ethiopia, with a population of more than 115 million people and Projected to be 230 million by 2050. Egyptian players abroad: Mostafa Mohamed's Nantes defeated at PSG, Trezeguet.. Italy Serie A results & fixtures (25th matchday), Egypts Prosecution investigates Hoggpool, Six European nations express concern over growing violence in Palestinian territories, Egyptian Premier League fixtures (21st matchday), US official says Biden expected to tighten rules on US investment in China. Sign up for news on environment, conflict and cooperation. This agreement could pave the way for a more detailed cooperation framework, and represents a major step toward dispute resolution. It states in Principle III that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm. The late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who laid the foundation stone in 2011, said the dam would be built without begging for money . The failure of the latest talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has intensified tensions between Ethiopia and downstream states Egypt and Sudan. A more recent trilateral meeting mediated by the African Union in mid-July, however, appeared to diffuse the situation with all three countries reaching a major common understanding towards achieving an agreement (Al Jazeera, 2020). Ethiopia completes third filling of Blue Nile mega-dam reservoir Construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam began in 2011 and it is currently nearing completion. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source of cooperation or - USGS Hence, it seems that such an argument would receive a warm welcome from the current bench were the matter ever to be adjudicated there. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Ethiopian Challenge of It could be a treaty or merely a political declaration as the name implies. In July of 2021, the second filling of the dam was completed. Amazingly, the normally required social and environmental impact studies were only conducted three years after construction of the dam had began. The above-mentioned Gilgel Gibe III Dam stood out as the worlds most controversial dam until the GERD. [35] After announcing the dam's construction, and with a view to the increasing tensions, the Ethiopian government invited both Egypt and Sudan to form an International Panel of Experts (IPoE) to solicit understanding of the benefits, costs and impacts of the GERD. The Blue Nile is Ethiopias largest river, with high potential for hydropower and irrigation. Rendering of GERDEthiopia is building one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the River Nile near the Sudan border. Sima Aldardari. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56(4), 687-702. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a Big Deal - BORGEN Success on this endeavor will only occur under a legally binding regime that ensures mutually beneficial rights. Whittington, D. et al. It will also give Ethiopia more control . Trilateral talks mediated by the United States and World Bank from November 2019 to February 2020 collapsed as Ethiopia rejected a binding agreement with Egypt and Sudan on the filling and operation of the GERD, which led to both downstream countries requesting intervention from the UN Security Council (UNSC) in May 2020 (Kandeel, 2020). 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. Negotiations resumed three weeks after Al-Sisi took office in June 2014, and an agreement was made to resume negotiations - an achievementhailed by both Egypt and Ethiopia as a new chapter in relations between Egypt and Ethiopia based on openness and mutual understanding and cooperation (Omar, 2014). However, as a result of the ability and willingness of Ethiopians at home and abroad to invest in the dam project, the government was able to raise a significant portion of the money needed to start the construction of the GERD. Filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile River is well under way near the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Sudan is caught between the competing interests of Egypt and Ethiopia. It signifies that Egypts de facto veto power on major upstream dams has been broken, and it clearly demonstrates the political will of Ethiopia to develop its water infrastructure even in the absence of a comprehensive basin agreement. At the same. An unsubscribe function is also at the bottom of every newsletter. 67K views 6 months ago ETIOPIA The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on the Blue Nile, is located around 14 km upstream of the Ethiopian-Sudan Border, at around 700 km from the Capital. The United States is Committed to Egypt's Water Security and Advancing The dam will flood 1,680 square kilometers of forest in northwest Ethiopia (an area about four times the size of Cairo), displace approximately 20,000 people in Ethiopia, and create a reservoir that will hold around 70 billion cubic . Crucially, however, despite being signed by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the legal status of the DoP was left (deliberately) vague. The strategy and its surrounding narrative have attracted large influxes of foreign investment in the Ethiopian agrarian sector, with multi-million dollar leases of agricultural land to foreigners generally linked to irrigation projects planned in tandem with the construction of the dam. . 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.