Ethiopia: 2nd Filling of Renaissance Dam Complete

By Staff, Agencies 

Ethiopia has completed the filling of a massive, controversial dam on the Blue Nile River for a second year, state media has said, a move that is likely to anger Egypt and Sudan who have long opposed the project.

Addis Ababa has said the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD], a $4bn hydropower project, is crucial to its economic development and to provide power.

But the project has caused concern over water shortages and safety in Egypt and Sudan, which also depend on the Nile’s waters.

Both countries have called for a binding legal arrangement before dam operations begin, but attempts at mediation have failed, raising concerns that tensions could rise following the most recent announcement.

“The second filling of the Renaissance dam has been completed and the water is overflowing,” Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s minister for water, irrigation and energy said on Monday.

He further stated: “It means we have now the needed volume of the water to run the two turbines.”

Earlier on Monday, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation [EBC] had said “the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be completed in few minutes”.

Paul Okumu of Africa Water for Peace says that instead of focusing on issues such as time taken to fill the dam, the “bigger picture” was being missed.

“You got two downstream countries that are worried about safety until 10 years down the line. They are worried about predictability 10 years down the line,” he told Al Jazeera from Nairobi, Kenya.

“They are worried about the potential of water wars, and nobody’s giving them any assurance until today.

And they are worried about the ramification of this [dam] are going to be in terms of setting precedents for other upstream development.”