Damopia Dam and Egypt’s existential fear

On the horizon over the Blue Nile and extends about a kilometer, the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was a project to build the nation and the possible economic revolution 14 years in this field.

As it opens today, it is the largest strained electrolyte project in Africa.

While the dam-which costs about $ 6 billion of CDN-has caused deep concern in the pictorial countries like Egypt, its completion is a pride point for Ethiopia, the symbol of self-reliance, and a turning point for a nation where millions are still cooking on shoes, carosephs and chrosin for light.

“The Ethiopians are cheerful,” said Musa Crespos Okelo, a prominent researcher at the Institute of Security Studies in Addis Ababa. “The dam is part of the changing infrastructure of history … Today it represents what you can call Ethiopia in the past and Ethiopia in the future.”

The hydroelectric project is designed to carry 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity – more than twice the current ability in the country.

Ozlo says that she promises the transition of the country that is manipulating the conflict to energy dominance in the century of Africa, because it will be able to sell electricity that affects the need for neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Kenya.

The sale of power in the region would provide Ethiopia a new flow of foreign currency.

Not everyone is cheerful

But what is being celebrated in Addis Ababa is afraid of Downerv in Cairo.

Egyptian President Abdel Fahia Al -Sisi described the project as an “existential threat” and pledged to defend water security in his country by all available means.

It has a population of 110 million, Egypt depends completely on the Nile, and any decrease in its flow constitutes a threat to agriculture, jobs and national stability.

Cairo is based on its demand on the Nile Water Treaty in 1959 with Sudan, a agreement in the colonial era that gave two-thirds of the flow of the river and nearly a quarter to Sudan, and leaving the upstream countries like Ethiopia is nothing-although the highlands provide most of the water.

Sudan also worries the low flows in this region exposed to drought that can reach agriculture and settle the estuary dams.

Ethiopia and other upstream countries reject the treaty, as the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed has not repeated the neighbors that the project does not harm.

Years of negotiations, with mediators ranging from the African Union to Russia and the United States, have failed to resolve the conflict.

“Despite all the efforts made by Egypt, it was not able to prevent Ethiopia from building the dam,” Mbako said. “They need to reach an agreement as they see it as a regional development project” and the participation of its administration.

If they do not, he says, Egypt and Sudan are the ones who will suffer.

Sovereignty

For Ethiopia, the dam has become a rare uniform power, not least because it was funded by the Ethiopians themselves.

MBUCA says that the diplomatic efforts made by Egypt to stop the dam have already prevented Ethiopia’s access to international financing, forcing Ethiopia to sell bonds to its citizens and diaspora to finance the project. For most Ethiopians, this makes the project a strong symbol – from economic progress as well as sovereignty.

For the broader African continent, Al -Sadd provides a development model for international loan restrictions.

“Many Africans say,” Ethiopia has accomplished something that most African countries have not been able to do, “Mabako said.

“A huge construction project without the help of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the European Union … must be celebrated, not only by Ethiopia.”