Ethiopia opens the esophagus dam amid the pictorial tensions with Egypt, Sudan Energy News

Ethiopia celebrates the largest electricity dam in Africa, as Egypt and Sudan express their fears of water security.

Ethiopia has opened the largest photovoltaic dam in Africa on the Blue Nile, as the project of $ 5 billion continues to flourish with the neighbors in the direction of the course of the river Sudan and Egypt.

Prime Minister Abi Ahmed praised the GERD Grand Renaissance dam (GERD) as a “common opportunity” for the region, which is expected to generate more than 5,000 megawatts of energy and allow the export of surplus electricity.

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A handful of regional leaders, including the President of Kenya William Roto and the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, attended the celebrations on Tuesday, which started the night before with screens and drones such as “geopolitical rise” and “a jump in the future”.

But Sudan and Egypt – who are highly dependent on the Nile for water supplies – expressed their concerns that the dam would threaten their water security and even violate international law. Their leaders did not attend the opening of the dam.

The Blue Nile, one of the main tributaries of the Nile, flows north to Sudan and then Egypt. The dam is only 14 km (9 miles) east of the Sudanese border, and it is 1.8 km (1.1 miles) and 145 meters (0.1 miles).

“I understand their concerns, because of course, if you look at Egypt from the sky, you see that the Street of Life is present” thanks to the Nile, Petro Salini, CEO of the Italian company Webuild that built the dam, tell the island. He added that “organizing water from this dam will create an additional benefit” for the neighbors.

“A continuous threat to stability”

GERD has generated regional tension since its launch in 2011, with years of cooperation talks between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt is still to stop.

Last week, Sudan and Egypt issued a joint statement called Ethiopia’s actions “unilaterally” and said that the dam represents “a continuous threat to stability.”

The Roseires Dam, Sudan, which is located about 110 km (70 miles) in the direction of the esophagus, faces possible future effects if Ethiopia performs large versions of water without coordination, according to reports of Mohamed Vall Island.

Fall said: “Roseires is the closest, and he is 60 years old, and when it was built it was 25 times younger – and it is likely to bear the implications of the repercussions if a mistake in the Ethiopian dam occurs.”

But GERD may also provide benefits such as regulating the annual flow of the river and reduce possible floods in the villages on the banks of the Nile.

Abdullah Abdul Rahman, director of the Roser Dam Administration, told Al -Jazeera that Gerd helped control the flow in Roser “used to be very big.”

“There is a reduction in huge quantities of silt and trees that were the rainy season used to bring Roser, causing his storage capacity to shrink by a third.”

“The benefits of the dam may eventually reach the threat of floods and silt,” said Descalgen Chani Dageno, Associate Professor of Water Resources at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia and a member of the Ethiopian Parliament.

He said that instead of creating tension, “GERD” will be a project that could really lead to regional integration and cooperation.