"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. The Eastern Nile Basin is of critical geopolitical importance to the Niles overall hydro-political regime. "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". Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have expressed concerns over the impacts of the dam on their water supply. Both countries are concerned that without a clear and binding agreement with Ethiopia, the latter will have full control of the passage of water from the GERD during droughts, which would be devastating to the lives of millions in Egypt and Sudan. What are the disadvantages of the Aswan Dam? [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. It also created a counter message to Egypts powerful the Nile is Egypt narrative that is familiar around the world. To African commentators in recent decades, massive investments in mega-energy and irrigation projects were emblematic of the African economic emergence, and Ethiopia at that time vaunted itself as one of the fastest-growing economies in the region. Churning waters: Strategic shifts in the Nile basin. Ethiopia and Sudan are currently developing and implementing water infrastructure developments unilaterally - as Egypt has done in the past and continues to do. GIGA Focus No. African Union, Israel and the crisis of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Egypt, Ethiopia to form joint committee on Renaissance Dam. 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. It is clearly a philosophy that looks beyond the electricity and freshwater needs of local communities to a geo-strategic restructuring of the Horn of Africa. 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. 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. This agreement could pave the way for a more detailed cooperation framework, and represents a major step toward dispute resolution. Second came the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP) which concerned the Dam specifically (rather than the Nile more broadly). 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. 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 Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Gets Set to Open - Hiiraan Online While the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is taking shape on . 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. Ethiopia could argue that those imperial powers did not foresee the decolonisation of Africa and that this represented a watershed event that profoundly changed the foundation on which the Nile Water Treaties were constructed. 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. In response, Ethiopia threatened military force to defend the dam and protect its interests (The New Arab, 2020a). The various warnings by experts about the dangers of the new Ethiopian dam have begun to cause panic among Egyptians, to the point of belief that the Aswan Dam will collapse once the Renaissance is completed. Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs DISADVANTAGES OF ASWAN DAM the agriculture output of Egypt. The politicisation of the Niles water and the utilisation of development projects to achieve political ends are not new phenomena. What could have been strictly technical negotiations have turned into a political deadlock. Cameroon's Choupo-Moting scores winner as Bayern reclaim Bundesliga top.. English Premier League results & fixtures (26th matchday), Germany Bundesliga results & fixtures (23rd matchday), Israeli delegation expelled from the African Union summit. It has led a diplomatic initiative to undermine support for the dam in the region; as well as in other countries supporting the project such as China and Italy. Egypt faces another dam challenge - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted In fact, the Dam arguably smooths out the flow and mitigates the risk of both drought and floods. It and several other large dams in Ethiopia could turn the country into Africa's hydropower hub. It will take between eight and ten years to fill the new dam. The change of government in Egypt led to a more conciliatory approach (Von Lossow & Roll, 2015). 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. The filling time is estimated to take about 10 years, during which the Blue Nile water flows would be reduced. Ethiopia, however, prefers to have the flexibility to make decisions on how to deal with droughts. 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. 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. According to Baradei, hydropower dams create immense turbulence in the water, where chemical reactions such as dissolved oxygen can destroy fauna and flora. Governing the Nile River Basin: The Search for a New Legal Regime. They can also cause dispute and heartachefor example, over damage to. In any event, the dispute remains. A political requirement will be to agree on rules for filling the GERD reservoir and on operating rules for the GERD, especially during periods of drought. grand ethiopian renaissance dam. AFRICANGLOBE. Across Ethiopia, poor farmers and rich business executives alike . 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). grand ethiopian renaissance dam Flashcards | Quizlet Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs (2017). But controversy has surrounded the project ever since it was announced in 2011 especially concerning its . Given the fact that the conflict between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over the GERD seems to be among the most pressing issues in the region, it might be advisable for emphasis to be placed on securing a trilateral agreement that secures the peace between these three countries first. Flashcards. Download PDF 1.40 MB. 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. 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. Although Egypt has persistently argued that the 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan is the legal framework for the allocation of the waters of the Nile, Ethiopia and other upstream riparian states reject that argument. Over the years, Egypt has used its extensive diplomatic connections and the colonial-era 1929 and 1959 agreements to successfully prevent the construction of any major infrastructure projects on the tributaries of the Nile. Why is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam contentious? Disputes over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) Since its inception, there have been two, highly contentious, products. Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law 2017. (DOC) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Academia.edu Cooperation among the three countries has never been more important as demand for water rises, she added, due to factors such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization. Ethiopian opinion is divided over the need for such huge investments in hydroelectric energy when the national network is still very underdeveloped and unable to cope. As early as 1957, Ethiopian officials said that the Somalian economy could not survive on its own given how heavily dependent it was on Ethiopia. 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. 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. Impacts of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Downstream Countries 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. The Political Deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam l It is in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia, about 15 km east of the border with Sudan. Sudan is caught between the competing interests of Egypt and Ethiopia. Maguid, M.A. (2014). L'Europe en Formation, 365(3), 99-138. It imports about half its food products and recycles about 25 bcm of water annually. Here, for the first time, Egypt recognised Ethiopias right to use the Nile for development purposes. (2012). 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 10-year filling time of GERD will likely contribute to fastened salinisation in Egypt. Egypt wants control and guarantees for its share of Nile waters. This is a matter of acute concern given that Egypt depends on the Nile for about 97% of its irrigation and drinking water. Ethiopia Needs the United States to Act as an Honest Broker in the Nile . A Grand New Dam on the Nile - NASA 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. 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. Egypts Nile Water Policy under Sisi: Security Interests Promote Rapprochement with Ethiopia. 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's Grand Renaissance Dam. The 6,000-megawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, shown here in May 2016, is scheduled to begin producing electricity in 2017. Four of these would potentially be located on the main river and one would eventually evolve into the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Cairo - U.S. Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Ambassador Mike Hammer met with senior Egyptian government officials on July 25 to advance a diplomatic resolution on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that supports the water needs, economy, and livelihood of all Egyptians, Sudanese, and Ethiopians. 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. 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, an agreement was still far from reach. Workers move iron girders from a crane at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba, Ethiopia, on Dec. 26, 2019. Disadvantages Slow process Could be washed to the wrong direction Start up costs Lesson 4: Long term investment, It can't cope with he propagation rate of water hyacinth. Why was the aswan high dam built? Explained by Sharing Culture 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. In the imperialist age, Ethiopian emperors threatened to alter the course of the Nile and stop its flow to Egypt. Sima Aldardari. The Blue Nile is Ethiopias largest river, with high potential for hydropower and irrigation. 17th round of GERD tripartite talks hits wall in Cairo. Second, the upstream riparian states must recognize and accept Egypts near total dependence on the waters of the Nile River. However, as noted above, the trouble with relying on the DoP is that its legal status is not clearly defined. 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. khadsyy Plus. 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. 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). If Egyptian authorities refuse to abandon these anachronistic treatieswhich have created untenable water-use rights that benefit only itself and Sudanall parties will remain at an impasse. As mentioned above, Ethiopias dam-construction strategy is intimately linked with large-scale foreign investment in the agrarian sector and specifically in areas near the artificial reservoirs created by the dams. 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 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). What are the disadvantages of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an. . The Dam is used to generate electricity and went into partial operation in 2022. Moreover, it arguably prohibits any reduction of flow to Egypt by limiting Ethiopias use of the Dam to electricity generation alone. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars. 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 These are two of the largest dams in Africa. 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). 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. In contrast, if water from the Dam were to be used for irrigation purposes by Ethiopia (i.e. Ultimately, however, Egypt did not sign the CFA (nor did Sudan) hence it does not resolve the dispute. Sudan and Egypt, which rely most heavily on the . Crucially, however, despite being signed by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the legal status of the DoP was left (deliberately) vague. The Ethiopian government has always availed itself of its power to transfer local populations off land it decides to declare a public resource. Officials in Addis Ababa argue that the GERD will have no major impact on water flow into the Nile, instead arguing that the hydropower dam will provide benefits to countries in the region, including as a source of affordable electric power and as a major mechanism for the management of the Nile, including the mitigation of droughts and water salinity. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 79-110. to hydrate farmland), it would effectively be taken from downstream states like Egypt. Ethiopia should get its fair share of water that originates in Ethiopia. Egypt, fearing major disruptions to its access to the Niles waters, originally intended to prevent even the start of the GERDs construction. Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has the second largest population in the continent. 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. 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. 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. Ethiopia seems to have the legal upper hand in this dispute. Indeed, Sudan had initially opposed the Dam but changed its position in 2012 after consultations with Ethiopia. Nile Basins GERD dispute creates risks for Egypt, Sudan, and beyond. Since plans for Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) were first announced in 2011, Cairo has viewed the project as a serious threat to the country's water supply. It is therefore intrinsically connected with the question of land ownership. 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 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. The $4 billion hydroelectric dam . 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). 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. 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 most important of these treaties is the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the Watercourses Convention). However, Ethiopia ultimately refused to sign the draft agreement. A political requirement will be to agree on rules for filling the GERD reservoir and on operating rules for the GERD, especially during periods of drought. In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. 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. Even then, the initial studies did not extend beyond the borders with Kenya. Huddersfield Repository - University of Huddersfield Match. 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. RANE (2015). Egypt fears Ethiopia Renaissance Dam threatens water supply At 6,000 MW, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed at 2017(IPoE, 2013). Egypt accuses. On the contrary, GERD has a positive impact in terms of reducing flood and silting and boost water conservation as well as generate energy for the region. The Gerd is expected to generate over 5,000 megawatts of electricity, doubling the nation's . Third, Egypt should abandon continued references to its so-called natural historical rights (i.e., the water rights granted Egypt by the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the 1959 Agreement between Egypt and Sudan). Following the fall of Mengistu Haile-Mariams regime in Ethiopia in 1991, Ethiopia experienced a remarkable rise in the construction of dams and hydroelectric power stations. 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. 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. Second, regarding the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty, although Ethiopia was a party and although that instrument does deal with the flow of water on the Nile, its terms are strictly limited. Sudan, caught between the competing interests of both Egypt and Ethiopia, has been changing its stance on the issue. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Fact Sheet Alaa al-Zawahiri, a member of the Egyptian National Panel of Experts studying the effects of the Renaissance Dam, believes as much. The Grand Renaissance Dam and prospects for cooperation on the Eastern Nile. The decisions that this group renders must be binding on all riparian states. 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. UN ready to promote 'win-win solution' for Blue Nile dam project Ethiopias Blue Nile Dam is an opportunity for regional collaboration, Developing countries are key to climate action, Self-organizing Nigeria: The antifragile state, Managing the compounding debt and climate crises. Another argument Egypt might adduce concerns the DoP. Africa's largest dam fills Ethiopia with hope and Egypt with dread It states in Principle III that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm. On Foes and Flows: Vulnerabilities, Adaptive Capacities and Transboundary Relations in the Nile River Basin in Times of Climate Change. Solar and wind power could break the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam It will also give Ethiopia more control . The former was initially funded by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, but these later withdrew for legal and other reasons. Monday January 2, 2017. Given these considerations, it seems that Ethiopia has all but won the dispute. 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. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Ethiopian Challenge of Perhaps the most significant project in the 2003 plan was the Chemoga-Yeda Hydroelectric Project, a series of five small dams on Blue Nile tributaries and two dams on the Genale River with a couple more envisioned for a later phase. 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. 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. The Nile riparians must understand that the river is a common resource whose effective management must be approached from a basin-wide perspective. What Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia must overcome to all benefit from the Grand 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 controversy over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Brookings His research indicates that rapid filling of the reservoir could lead to severe economic losses, though he notes that expanding groundwater extraction, adjusting the operation of Egypt's Aswan High Dam, and cultivating crops that require less water could help offset some of the impact.
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