Therefore, a negotiated position that favours Ethiopia is likely to be reached once it becomes politically palatable enough inside Egypt. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars. International experts analyze impacts of Ethiopian dam 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. khadsyy Plus. [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. disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam Huddersfield Repository - University of Huddersfield 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. Copyright 2023, JURIST Legal News & Research Services, Inc. Elliot Winter | New Castle University (UK), Egyptian Water Security and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Why Ethiopia has the Upper Hand, Vienna Convention on the Succession of States, history of copyright in the United States. Construction of the 6,000-megawatt, US $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began . 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. Match. Success on this endeavor will only occur under a legally binding regime that ensures mutually beneficial rights. (2012). What are the disadvantages of the Aswan Dam? Neither the Egyptian nor the Ethiopian governments received positive domestic feedback on their agreement. It concludes that Ethiopias legal position is far stronger and that a negotiated agreement in its favour is the most likely outcome of the dispute. 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. We shall begin with the former. The Grand Renaissance Dam and prospects for cooperation on the Eastern Nile. Hence, it is hard to see how Egypt could make a compelling argument that it has been harmed by the Dam. 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. 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. (2017). It's very unpredictable and it can be very dangerous," says Pottinger. These parallel developments appear to be elements of a bigger hydro-political strategy wherein the riparian countries aim to increase their water utilisation to put facts on the ground (and underpin legal claims based on those uses) and increase their bargaining position for renegotiations of volumetric water allocations. 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. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a critical project that intends to provide hydroelectricity to support the livelihoods of millions of people in the region. 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. A series of talks since then have largely failed to produce a consensus among the concerned countries, with tensions rising again after Ethiopia announced its intention to begin filling the dam in July 2020. "The Blue Nile is the lifeblood of Egypt and its people and critics fear the dam could significantly reduce water flow to the country." "Climate change is such a big unknown. There are three key articles. A general view of the Blue Nile river as it passes through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba in Ethiopia, on December 26, 2019. Sudan is caught between the competing interests of Egypt and Ethiopia. Government of the United States of America. 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. Misplaced Opposition to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD): Update. The toll on the local communities affected by the dams has been enormous. (2011). Thus, as with the Watercourses Convention and the CFA, the DoP does not offer a clear legal resolution to the dispute. 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. Similarly, both the final agreement between the riparian states for the allocation of the water and resources of the Nile should include a dispute resolution mechanism. Elliot Winter is a lecturer (assistant professor) in international law at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Zegabi East Africa News (2015). 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. The Untold Story of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. The largest permanent desert lake in the world, Turkana has three national parks that are now listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - ArcGIS StoryMaps But this did not rule out eruptions of tension, not just between local communities and the central government, but also between Ethiopia and its neighbours. 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. Indeed, Sudan had initially opposed the Dam but changed its position in 2012 after consultations with Ethiopia. Challenges for water sharing in the Nile basin: changing geo-politics and changing climate. Egypt relies on the river for as much as 90 percent of its freshwater and sees the new dam as an existential . Salman, S.M.A. 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). Construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam began in 2011 and it is currently nearing completion. Lastly, over-year storage facilities upstream in Ethiopia will allow Sudan to increase its water use. L'Europe en Formation, 365(3), 99-138. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - ArcGIS StoryMaps 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. Feb 11th 2021 DAMS HAVE several uses. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Africa's Water Tower Ethiopia - Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - Hydropower According to Article 16, former colonies do not inherit the treaty obligations of their former colonial rulers and instead receive a clean slate. However, Egypt could argue that the territorial treaty exception, under Articles 11 and 12, applies whereby colonial treaty provisions concerning boundaries must survive the impact of succession and bind successor states. 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. Nile Basins GERD dispute creates risks for Egypt, Sudan, and beyond. It will be the largest hydropower project in Africa. Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an. The $4 billion hydroelectric dam . It could be a treaty or merely a political declaration as the name implies. The GERD and the Revival of the Egyptian-Sudanese Dispute over the Nile Waters. Political instability in Egypt played an important role as the announcement of the project coincided with the resignation of President Mubarak during the Arab Spring. 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. 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. But with a generation capacity of 6.45GW, the Ethiopian government quoted the project as vital to the country's economic growth. When it is completed, with its concrete volume of 10.2 million m3, GERD will feature the largest dam in Africa. PDF Negative Impact of Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Population on - AJER To date, no significant harm has been caused to Egypt or Sudan as a result of the ongoing construction of the GERD. In terms of the old or anachronistic law, two of the Nile Water Treaties do not bind Ethiopia meanwhile the third does not actually preclude the construction of a dam. Despite the controversy and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam's effect on Egypt and Sudan, it appears that the Ethiopian government will continue to move forward with filling the dam. 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. In any event, the dispute remains. 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). Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has the second largest population in the continent. Another impressive snippet of information is that the Government of Ethiopia is financing the entire project, along with loans mainly from China. Moreover, it arguably prohibits any reduction of flow to Egypt by limiting Ethiopias use of the Dam to electricity generation alone. Attempts to resolve the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute over the past decade have reached a deadlock. The GERD has become a new reality challenging the traditional dynamics in the Nile River Basin. 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. As a hydroelectric project, the dam is expected to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity. In short, the Nile Waters Treaties do little to constrain Ethiopias ability to construct the Dam. They generate electricity, store water for crop irrigation and help to prevent floods. 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). Environmental Impacts Of Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam On The Addis Ababa has said the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4bn hydropower project, is crucial to its economic development and to provide power. Sudan and Egypt, which rely most heavily on the . Egypt wants control and guarantees for its share of Nile waters. It has also expressed concerns about the potential impact the initial filling of the dam will have on areas downstream. The announcement on Friday comes a day after Ethiopia said it had launched power production from the second turbine at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). It seeks to build an infrastructure for regional water hegemony, positioning it, at the very least, in such a way that it can exchange water for oil. to hydrate farmland), it would effectively be taken from downstream states like Egypt. Water Policy, 16(4), 595-608. Despite the intense disagreements, though, Ethiopia continues to move forward with the dam, arguing that the hydroelectric project will significantly improve livelihoods in the region more broadly. The multi-services provided by the hydropower development and its technical advantages could be driving forces for local, regional and national development, and a catalyst for sustainable development. Finally, Ethiopia could make a strong case that the operation of the Dam is in alignment with the core principles of international water law, namely equitable utilisation and no significant harm. These are found in Articles 5 and 7 of the Water Courses Convention respectively and, despite the scepticism outlined above, arguably form part of customary international law. l located on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia . I agree with the delivery of the newsletter. First woman appointed to the Canada Supreme Court. Nile negotiations break down as Egypt, Sudan accuse Ethiopia of rejecting legally binding agreement. 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. 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. In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. Cairo Controversy prevailed in the Egyptian public opinion, after Deltares, a Dutch advisory institute, announced on Sept. 15 its withdrawal from a study to assess the risks that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile, can cause to Egypt and Sudan. The Nile waters have historically been governed by the Nile Waters Treaties. These colonial-era agreements comprise (i) the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty (with the UK representing modern-day Sudan); (ii) the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (with the UK representing modern-day Kenya and Uganda) and (iii) the 1959 Egypt-Sudan Treaty (with the UK now absent as a result of decolonisation). February 14, 2022 JPEG . In the imperialist age, Ethiopian emperors threatened to alter the course of the Nile and stop its flow to Egypt. The Dam is used to generate electricity and went into partial operation in 2022. Poverty alleviation, which is a major concern for all Nile Basin countries, could form the basis of a cooperative arrangement between all the Niles riparians. The New Arab (2020b). Location l Formerly called as project x then known as the Millennium Dam then it renamed to Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Revisiting hydro-hegemony from a benefitsharing perspective: the case Egypt has taken various efforts in a bid to secure its water security in the context of the Nile River. However, it also entails potential negative effects on Egypt, if not carefully managed (see alsoSecurity implications of growing water scarcity in Egypt). Mainly, for the downstream countries, the. The establishment of the Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, up 145 and a storage capacity of 74 . per year, that would constitute a drought and, according to Egypt and Sudan, Ethiopia would have to release some of the water in the dams reservoir to deal with the drought. This article considers water security in the context of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (the Dam). Ethiopian Renaissance Dam & Its implications on Egypt 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. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 79-110. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - jpl.nasa.gov Egypt has also escalated its call to the international community to get involved. While the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is taking shape on . The crucial leverage regarding Egypts water security lies with the Blue Nile countries Ethiopia and Sudan, as the Blue Nile is the main contributor to the Nile Rivers flow downstream. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam | International Rivers casting the DoP as a treaty) has the potential to abrogate the Nile Waters Treaties that Egypt holds so dear. 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. This is good news for Egypt and Sudan as hydropower means little actual water withdrawal. Terms in this set (10) how long and high is the dam? Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs Chinese banks provided financing for the purchase of the turbines and electrical equipment for the hydroelectric plants. In June 2020, tensions escalated when Ethiopia declared its intent to fill the dam in July without an agreement, which again led to Egypt and Sudan requesting UNSC intervention on the matter (Kandeel, 2020). The 6,000-megawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, shown here in May 2016, is scheduled to begin producing electricity in 2017. Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam: Ending Africa's Oldest Geopolitical Rivalry? On the surface, the 558 ft tall dam Africa's biggest hydropower project belies Ethiopia's financial muscle. 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). In 2019, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee warned that the Gibe III Dam had already disrupted the seasonal patterns of Lake Turkana and that this would reduce fish life and harm local communities dependent on the Lake. Egypt and Ethiopia have once again locked horns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. The Gerd is expected to generate over 5,000 megawatts of electricity, doubling the nation's . This was an attempt at a wholesale replacement for the Nile Waters Treaties. In response, Ethiopia threatened military force to defend the dam and protect its interests (The New Arab, 2020a). The CFA was a political success for the eight upstream states such as Ethiopia as it favoured those states and isolated the downstream states of Egypt and Sudan and made them appear recalcitrant. On Foes and Flows: Vulnerabilities, Adaptive Capacities and Transboundary Relations in the Nile River Basin in Times of Climate Change. Consequently, it suits Egypts interests in this context to argue that the DoP is binding, that it precludes any net loss of flow and therefore that the use of the Dam for irrigation purposes is prohibited. The unilateral decision taken by Ethiopia - which never recognised the 1959 agreement but had previously not been able to challenge it in fact - to build the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011 represents a major political challenge to the 1959 Agreement. Already, the United States has threatened to withhold development aid to Ethiopia if the conflict is not resolved and an agreement reached. But the Ethiopian elites show little interest in addressing such concerns, bent as they are on a nationalist revivalist project that claims an Ethiopian exceptionalism that places Addis Ababa above international law as it pursues a water-management strategy that has less to do with its development aims than with its ambitions to weaponise water in a bid for regional hegemony. In fact, the Dam arguably smooths out the flow and mitigates the risk of both drought and floods. 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 . [35] Indeed, the ICJ confirmed in Gabikovo-Nagymaros Project that all riparian states have a basic right to an equitable and reasonable sharing of the resources of the watercourse. Moreover, these principles were pulled through into the DoP agreed by both Egypt and Ethiopia. Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs The New Arab (2020a). It will also give Ethiopia more control . As noted above, the instrument concedes for the first time that Ethiopia has legitimate interests over the Nile. Since 2015, technical reports on the potential impacts of the dam have failed to reach a consensus within the TNC (Maguid, 2017). The controversy over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Brookings Even then, the initial studies did not extend beyond the borders with Kenya. It's free to sign up and bid on jobs. African Union, Israel and the crisis of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam These hydraulic mega-projects underscore the ambitious local and regional political aims of the Ethiopian ruling elites. Ethiopia rejects Arab League resolution on Renaissance Dam Ethiopia announced in April 2011 that it intends to build four large dams on the Nile, including one of the largest in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (formerly known as Project X or the Grand Millennium Dam).This huge dam will flood 1,680 square kilometers of forest in northwest Ethiopia, near the Sudan border, and create a reservoir that is nearly twice as large as Lake Tana . Egypt, Ethiopia to form joint committee on Renaissance Dam. Since then, there has been a constant stream of complaints regarding the social and environmental impacts on downriver areas, including large displacements of local populations. 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. The results indicated that the negative impacts on Egyptian water resources are dominant. Subsequent impact studies were performed by the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank, and in the light of the results, these banks cancelled their funding for Gibe III. Perhaps even more consequential is the fact that this agreement granted Egypt veto power over future Nile River projects. More alarmingly, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak allegedly even considered bombing the Dam. The withdrawal from the project by Deltares has been met by a wave of objections in Egypt for fear . Both Egypt and Ethiopia could make arguments in support of their positions. In addition, no independent, multilateral Environmental and Social Impact Assessments has been carried out suggesting that Ethiopia is reneging from the 2015 Declaration of Principles (Kandeel, 2020). However, for the reasons given above, the Nile Waters Treaties are unlikely to be considered territorial treaties. According to Baradei, hydropower dams create immense turbulence in the water, where chemical reactions such as dissolved oxygen can destroy fauna and flora.