"Today as you see behind me . 2011. how much does the reservoir contain? Ethiopia says second filling of Renaissance Dam complete Many historical grievances and distrust remain on the Ethiopian side regarding Egypt (Gebreluel, 2014), with some Ethiopian journalists assessing the 'Declaration of Principles' as being more in favour of Egypt than Ethiopia (Zegabi East Africa News, 2015). All three countries have a vested interest in a properly operated dam. Even in 2023, there are only 46 state parties, with key actors such as the US, Canada and Brazil remaining outside the Conventions regime. The writer is a professor of political science at the UAEs Zayed and Cairo universities, *A version of this article appears in print in the 9 July, 2020 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly, Spain La Liga results & fixtures (24th matchday). The GERD has the potential to act both as driver for conflict, but also for cooperation. As a result, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has recognised water security as a possible threat to international peace. 17th round of GERD tripartite talks hits wall in Cairo. Feb 11th 2021 DAMS HAVE several uses. In the absence of the application of the Watercourses Convention, various other legal arrangements and political declarations must be considered to gain an understanding of the regulation of the Dam and the Nile River more generally. Even without taking the dam into account, the largely desert country is short of water. Recently, however, Sudan has been more cautious with the project, citing concerns that the GERDs operation and safety could jeopardise its own dams (The New Arab, 2020b). (2020). Why is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam contentious? What Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia must overcome to all benefit from the Grand Renaissance Dam. Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an. Although the immediate issue at stakesecuring a technical agreement on the filling of the GERDs reservoiris among Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, the broader and longer-term goal should be for all 11 statesincluding Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Eritrea, and South Sudanto agree on a legal regime for the management of this important watercourse. Search for jobs related to Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 22m+ jobs. Initially opposed to the GERD, Sudan later expressed support for its construction in 2013, claiming that it would serve the interests of all three nations (Maguid, 2017). 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. The Ethiopian government has always availed itself of its power to transfer local populations off land it decides to declare a public resource. If the relevant parties can agree to these goals, the agreement, in the end, will need to include technical language that ensures equitable sharing of the Nile. The countrys 2003 development plan introduced many more, and the Ethiopian government launched an ambitious PR campaign to encourage donor nations and international funding agencies to support these projects financially and ideologically as the highway to Ethiopian development and prosperity. However, for the reasons given above, the Nile Waters Treaties are unlikely to be considered territorial treaties. Afraid that a drought might appear during the filling period, Egypt wants the filling to take place over a much longer period. However, it also makes useful concessions to Egypt which it may wish to press. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) takes an expansionist view towards decolonisation as seen in the Chagos Islands Advisory Opinion, in which it allowed the decolonisation agenda to trump the UKs lack of consent to any contentious proceedings. The above-mentioned Gilgel Gibe III Dam stood out as the worlds most controversial dam until the GERD. Ethiopia has never 'consumed' significant shares of the Nile's 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. Swain, A. To date, no significant harm has been caused to Egypt or Sudan as a result of the ongoing construction of the GERD. Indeed, as Tekuya notes, Ethiopia persistently objected to the 1929 and 1959 treaties and made clear that its failure to exploit the Nile resulted from a lack of capacity rather than a lack of a legal right to do so. First, as noted above, Ethiopia contributes 86% of the water in the Nile and so it seems only natural that it has an equitable claim to using Nile waters to aid growth in its impoverished economy. Ethiopia has the basins most suitable locations for hydropower production, and its damming of the Blue Nile would significantly increase Sudan's potential for irrigated agriculture. Egypt, fearing major disruptions to its access to the Nile's waters, originally intended to prevent even the start of the GERD's construction. Ethiopia rejects Arab League resolution on Renaissance Dam The filling regime and operational methods of GERD will affect Egypt, in particular through its impact on the operation of its Aswan High Dam (AHD) which aims at mitigating the high variability of the Nile River flow. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Egypt's enemy or a blessing in Impacts of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Downstream Countries The largest permanent desert lake in the world, Turkana has three national parks that are now listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The treaties also purported to give Egypt veto power over upstream projects. 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. The dispute escalated in 2011 when Ethiopia began construction of a major new dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), in the absence of any agreement with downstream Egypt. Ethiopia has two major plans for these rivers, which both flow into Somalia, in the form of the Wabe Shebelle and the Genale Dawa power plants. Addis Ababa expects to sell no less than 4,000 Megawatts (MW) of electricity to its regional partners in the coming decade. Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. According to some estimates, the Ethiopian government had to arrange for the resettlement of 1.5 million people in the four regions of Gambela, Somali, Afar, and Benishangul-Gumuz. However, an agreement was still far from reach. The Grand Renaissance Dam - Ethiopia's greatest risk On the surface, the 558 ft tall dam Africa's biggest hydropower project belies Ethiopia's financial muscle. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a Big Deal - BORGEN Von Lossow, T. & Roll, S. (2015). Both Egypt and Ethiopia could make arguments in support of their positions. The significance of Gulf involvement was highlighted by the . International experts analyze impacts of Ethiopian dam Revisiting hydro-hegemony from a benefitsharing perspective: the case of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. 4. Link, P.M. et al. Filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile River is well under way near the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam: Ending Africa's Oldest Geopolitical Rivalry? Attia, H. & Saleh, M. (2021). Ethiopia - Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - Hydropower Ethiopia and Egypt Are Fighting Over the Nile River. The United States Trilateral talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to finalise an agreement on a cooperation framework for the GERD have been mediated by the African Union, World Bank and United States. Nile negotiations break down as Egypt, Sudan accuse Ethiopia of rejecting legally binding agreement. The Chinese donors who have agreed to fund it have performed no independent social or environmental impact reviews. The 1902 Treaty did not preclude Ethiopia from undertaking works that might reduce, but not arrest, the flow of waters. Tawfik, Rawia Discussion Paper 5/2015 . 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. Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs Negative impacts of the GERD - Opinion - Ahram Online 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. The GERD has become a new reality challenging the traditional dynamics in the Nile River Basin. This antipathy is not new, with Munzinger noting even in the nineteenth century that Ethiopia is a danger for Egypt [which] must either take over Ethiopia and Islamize it or, retain it in anarchy and misery. Still, the Dam brings the old enmity into sharp focus. 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. On Feb. 26, Ethiopia temporarily suspended its . 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. Ethiopian general threatens military force to defend Nile dam as negotiations with Egypt falter. EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images. Egypt accuses. The three fillings hitherto, with the most recent in August 2022, imposed no discernible harm on downstream states. (2017). It also created a counter message to Egypts powerful the Nile is Egypt narrative that is familiar around the world. 74 cubic metres. It simultaneously expects that this role will change Ethiopias international status from a country perceived as poor and dependent on foreign aid to a regional power able to provide vital resources to its surrounding region. Kandeel, A. A Grand New Dam on the Nile - NASA The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a 6,450 MW hydropower project nearing completion on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, located about 30 km upstream of the border with Sudan. They can also cause dispute and heartachefor example, over damage to. As noted above, the instrument concedes for the first time that Ethiopia has legitimate interests over the Nile. 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. River Nile dam: Why Ethiopia can't stop it being filled Egypt, which lies 1,600 miles downstream of the Dam, believes its operation will reduce the amount of fresh water available to it from the Nile. It could be a treaty or merely a political declaration as the name implies. The dam was named the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) because it was designed to bring about the economic and renewal of Ethiopia, a nation mentioned in Genesis 2:13 as the Land in which . Indeed, Sudan had initially opposed the Dam but changed its position in 2012 after consultations with Ethiopia. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia - Webuild Project On March 4, 1909, the Copyright Act of 1909 became law, making infringement of a copyright a federal crime for the first time. 2. Typically, treaties contain provisions on the identification and function of the depositary, entry into force, adoption and so on (Article 24(4) Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT)). Benefits from the Nile's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Rural 21 These countries should return to the NBIs Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), which was concluded in 2010, try to resolve the disagreements that caused Egypt and Sudan to decline to sign the CFA, and use it as a model for a future binding legal regime. Construction of the 6,000-megawatt, US $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began . Although conflict over the allocation of the waters of the Nile River has existed for many years, the dispute, especially that between Egypt and Ethiopia, significantly escalated when the latter commenced construction of the dam on the Blue Nile in 2011. Both citizens and governments should be made part of the solution to the water-related conflicts that now threaten peace and security in the Nile Basin. Before discussing the benefits, the article will brief the general technical overview of the GERDP. Ethiopias dam-construction strategy threatens not only Kenyas water-resource development efforts but also Somalias water security, as is evidenced by Ethiopias development plans for the Jubba and Shebelle Rivers.