The dispute over the GERD is part of a long-standing feud between Egypt and Sudanthe downstream stateson the one hand, and Ethiopia and the upstream riparians on the other over access to the Niles waters, which are considered a lifeline for millions of people living in Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia's dam dispute: five key reads about how it started and how it 17th round of GERD tripartite talks hits wall in Cairo. 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. An unsubscribe function is also at the bottom of every newsletter. Learn the history of Toronto from the city's official website. However, as noted above, the trouble with relying on the DoP is that its legal status is not clearly defined. Ethiopia says it will take a further four to six years to fill up the reservoir to its maximum flood season capacity of 74bcm. [18] Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. The so-called Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) is Africa's biggest hydroelectric project to date. The Danger of Multi-Party Democracy and Free Elections in Plural Societies Recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a Legitimate Player in Egyptian Politics was a Big Mistake Ethiopian Partnering with ASKY to Establish West African Cargo Hub Ethiopia and China's ZTE singed $800 million mobile deal H and M to build factories in Ethiopia The GDP per capita in Ethiopia is only $475. 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. These hydraulic mega-projects underscore the ambitious local and regional political aims of the Ethiopian ruling elites. 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. Given these considerations, it seems that Ethiopia has all but won the dispute. Addis Ababa expects to sell no less than 4,000 Megawatts (MW) of electricity to its regional partners in the coming decade. 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. Article IV of the DoP provides that the parties shall utilize their shared water resources in their respective territories in an equitable and reasonable manner and Article III provides that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm in utilizing the Blue/Main Nile. Ethiopia can make a strong case that the operation of the Dam complies with each principle.
(PDF) The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Evaluating Its The Government of Egypt, a country which relies heavily on the waters of the Nile, has demanded that Ethiopia cease construction on the dam as a preconditions to negotiations, sought regional support for its position, and some political leaders have discussed methods to sabotage it. Indeed, Principle II notes that the purpose of the [Dam] is for power generation and regional integration through generation of sustainable and reliable clean energy supply. This is crucial given that hydroelectricity generation simply involves holding water back behind a dam for a period of time, and then releasing it again in a managed manner so that the electric turbines can spin consistently. Today, however, Ethiopia is building the Grand Renaissance Dam and, with it, Ethiopia will physically control the Blue Nile Gorgethe primary source of most of the Nile waters. On March 4, 1909, the Copyright Act of 1909 became law, making infringement of a copyright a federal crime for the first time. It states in Principle III that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm. The toll on the local communities affected by the dams has been enormous. 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. The significance of Gulf involvement was highlighted by the . If it were to take place during a sequence of years in which the Blue Nile flow and the AHD reservoir itself was low, Egypt might not be able to withdraw sufficient water supplies to meet all of its agricultural needs. The Political Deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance 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. Perhaps even more consequential is the fact that this agreement granted Egypt veto power over future Nile River projects.
Ethiopia and Egypt Are Fighting Over the Nile River. The United States Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs The most important of these treaties is the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the Watercourses Convention). 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.
In contrast, if water from the Dam were to be used for irrigation purposes by Ethiopia (i.e. At stake, too, is . The colonial powers have departed and so to continue to enforce treaties agreed based around their interests would be irrational. The Dam is used to generate electricity and went into partial operation in 2022. Flashcards.
Solar and wind power could break the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Given agricultures importance to pro-poor economic growth, Egypt, which has significant experience and expertise in irrigation agriculture, can share some of that expertise with other countries in exchange for increased trade with them. IDS (2013). Water scarcity is a growing problem. This has now changed due to political consolidation over the past two decades and the advent of alternative sources of external finance (to the traditional multilateral development banks), not least from China (Gebreluel, 2014;IDS, 2013). What are the disadvantages of the Aswan Dam? While the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is taking shape on . As they consider this controversial issue, all 11 riparian countries should seek to improve relations among themselves beyond their relationship with the Nile, especially in mutually beneficial areas such as trade; educational and cultural exchanges; the management of natural resources, including water; dealing with threats to peace and security, including the suppression and prevention of terrorism and extremism; and confronting major challenges to economic growth and poverty alleviation, such as climate change, widespread illiteracy, and poor infrastructure. "The Israeli installation of the missile system around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was completed after the Israeli work began in May 2019, considering that it is the first Israeli air defense system abroad that can launch (two types of missiles), the first with a range of 5 km, and the second with a range of 50 kilometer". At that point, the lake that . 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. 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. At the same. First came the 1999 Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars.
Why is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam contentious? What is your opinion on Ethiopia's chances of completing the "Great We shall begin with the former. 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. 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 Ethiopia's strategy for dam construction goes far beyond developmental goals. This is good news for Egypt and Sudan as hydropower means little actual water withdrawal. 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. Such an understanding and appreciation of Egypts water vulnerability would help the riparians develop a water management protocol that can significantly enhance equitable and reasonable use while minimizing significant harm to downstream riparians. At 6,000 MW, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed at 2017(IPoE, 2013).
Environmental Impacts Of Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam On The 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 . Flashcards. The instrument was a success in terms of cooling tensions between the states which seemed increasingly likely to come to blows. Second came the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP) which concerned the Dam specifically (rather than the Nile more broadly). The change of government in Egypt led to a more conciliatory approach (Von Lossow & Roll, 2015).
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Agreement within Reach, Under-Secretary Factbox: Key facts about Ethiopia's giant Nile dam | Reuters Ethiopia completes third filling of Blue Nile mega-dam reservoir The IPoE report recommended two studies to assess the environmental and socio-economic impacts of GERD and was interpreted by both the Egyptian and the Ethiopian government as a vindication of their respective positions. Therefore, a negotiated position that favours Ethiopia is likely to be reached once it becomes politically palatable enough inside Egypt. No water at all was allocated to Ethiopia. Perhaps the most obvious argument that Ethiopia may want to make is a rebuttal to Egypts continued reliance on the Nile Water Treaties. 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. With regard to the mega-dams, the Gilgel Gibe III Dam and the GERD speak volumes on the substance of Zenawis political ideology. 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 particular, the DoP takes a very strict approach to the no significant harm rule.
Ethiopia: The Untold Story of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam It merely provides at Article III that Ethiopia undertakes not to construct any work across the Blue Nile, Lake Tsana, or the Sobat which would arrest the flow of their waters into the Nile. In other words, Ethiopia only agreed that it would not completely stop the flow of tributaries into the Nile. Most recently, there have been suggestions that the African Union should resolve the disagreement. Egypt has also escalated its call to the international community to get involved.
PDF Negative Impact of Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Population on - AJER Therefore, all the water is eventually released downstream with the effect that there is no net loss of water to downstream states.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Ethiopian Challenge of Owned and operated by the Ethiopian Electric Power company, the 145-m-tall roller-compacted concrete gravity dam . Churning waters: Strategic shifts in the Nile basin. Basically, Ethiopia should cooperate with the other riparian states in developing and adopting an effective drought mitigation protocol, one that includes the possibility that GERD managers may have to release water from the reservoir, when necessary, to mitigate droughts. For Ethiopia, GERD is considered an economic game-changer. An Ethiopian national flag is seen at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Guba, Ethiopia, on February 19, 2022. 4.
Disputes over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) Although the case has been dropped, the organisations work focused international attention on the dams potential detrimental impacts on the lakes habitat. 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. 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. This includes Sudan, another downstream nation that one might assume would oppose its construction. Feb 11th 2021 DAMS HAVE several uses. 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. Ethiopias strategy for dam construction goes far beyond developmental goals. While this means new opportunities to develop extended irrigation-based agriculture for the Sudanese, it represents also a new threat for Egypts current Nile water utilisation (Whittington et al., 2014). In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. 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).