The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam On The Blue Nile

This book is about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam newly being built on the Blue Nile, a transboundary river. Due to rising population and increasing water demand in the Nile basin, major projects raise interest and concern by millions with potential for water conflict. The dam design, reservoir filling policy, operation of the dam, riparian countries response, dam site importance and social impact and economy of the dam are presented in the book.

This book is a contribution by the presenters of the 2020 International Conference on the Nile and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The Nile basin is facing unprecedented level of water right challenges after the construction of GERD has begun. Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have struggled to narrow their differences on filling and operation of the GERD. The need for science and data-based discussion for a lasting solution is crucial. Historical perspectives, water rights, agreements, failed negotiations, and other topics related to the Nile is covered in this book. The book covers Nile water claims past and present, international transboundary basin cooperation and water sharing, Nile water supply and demand management, Blue Nile/Abbay and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, land and water degradation and watershed management, emerging threats of the Lakes Region in the Nile Basin, and hydrologic variation and monitoring. This book is beneficial for students, researchers, sociologists, engineers, policy makers, lawyers, water resources and environmental managers and for the people and governments of the Nile Basin.

This unique volume discusses various aspects of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the Aswan High Dam (AHD) including their positive and negative impacts. It presents up-to-date research findings by Egyptian scientists and researchers covering several interesting hot topics under the following main themes: · Major impacts of GERD compared with the AHD · Environmental impacts of the AHD · Modeling scenarios investigating the impacts of GERD on the AHD and downstream · Environmental and social impacts of GERD on Egypt · Status and assessment of the sediment of the AHD reservoir and modeling the impacts of GERD on Lake Nubia sediment accumulation · Proposed scenarios for maximizing the benefits of the AHD reservoir · International aspects of GERD and the AHD The volume also offers a set of conclusions and recommendations to optimize the cooperation between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. It appeals to postgraduate students, researchers, scientists, professionals and policy planners.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will not only be Africa’s largest dam, but it is also essential for future cooperation and development in the Nile River Basin and East African region. This book, after setting out basin-level legal and policy successes and failures of managing and sharing Nile waters, articulates the opportunities and challenges surrounding the GERD through multiple disciplinary lenses. It sets out its possibilities as a basis for a new era of cooperation, its regional and global implications, the benefits of cooperation and coordination in dam filling, and the need for participatory and transparent decision making. By applying law, political science and hydrology to sharing water resources in general and to large-scale dam building, filling and operating in particular, it offers concrete qualitative and quantitative options that are essential to promote cooperation and coordination in utilising and preserving Nile waters. The book incorporates the economic dimension and draws on recent developments including: the signing of a legally binding contract by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to carry out an impact assessment study; the possibility that the GERD might be partially operational very soon, the completion of transmission lines from GERD to Addis Ababa; and the announcement of Sudan to commence construction of transmission lines from GERD to its main cities. The implications of these are assessed and lessons learned for transboundary water cooperation and conflict management.

Ethiopians had to wait over a thousand years to be able to use their waters for their own development. Ethiopian emperors and leaders have tried to build a dam on the Nile River as part of their development efforts. Unfortunately, due to varying reasons and circumstances, including external pressure from countries near and far, geo- and hydro-political balance shifts, and internal conflicts, they were not successful in realizing their wishes. Instead of giving up, though, each leader contributed to different extents, by laying the foundation for and addressing challenges faced in making this dream a reality. The masterplan for the dam designed in 1964 has been the seed in waiting ever since, waiting for the right opportunity to arise for construction to start. Following the decade long negotiation and an agreement on the equitable use of the Nile waters by most Nile riparian countries, and the subsequent Cooperative Framework Agreement, the Ethiopian government started the construction of the GERD in 2011. The waiting had finally ended ... It was time for the seed to grow. Twelve years later, the construction program is almost done. The reservoir already holds billions of cubic meters of water, and the country has produced power from the first two turbines as part of the early power generation milestone. The seed has sprouted, and the tree is on track to be the tallest in Africa. In this six-part book, Dereje Befekadu Tessema discusses events that started thousands of years ago, culminating in the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He also shares a recount of his trip from the sources to the mouth of the Nile River.

In The Fairness ‘Dilemma’ in Sharing the Nile Waters, Zeray Yihdego offers a comprehensive and critical account of the application of the fairness principle to sharing Nile water resources with particular emphasis on fairness regarding building, filling and benefits from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and offers critical insights and lessons available to public international law.

This book covers the entire Nile Basin and reflects the latest findings. It provides unique and cutting-edge insights into the region’s agriculture, water resources, governance, poverty, productivity, upstream-downstream linkages, innovations, future plans and their implications. Many international summits and conferences have declared that there is an urgent need to save agriculture from its demise. Most international agencies now recognize that something must be done, but what? Beyond policy changes, the restructuring of global governance and institutional reforms are called for. Commitments must be translated into concrete actions leading to a renewed interest in agriculture and a return to the basic objective of achieving food security.

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject African Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: This term paper aims at what legal tools Ethiopia can consider fighting Egypt's hegemony and revoke the Nile treaties to avoid future conflicts in the Horn of Africa over the use of the Nile waters and to improve the livelihood in region. My Thesis is that the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam poses no threat to Egypt and in this paper, I will provide a historical and geographical overview of the geopolitical conflict, followed by an explanation of the treaties that Egypt has invoked to date. I will then provide an overview of Ethiopia's legal development since 1959. At the end, I will then draw an appropriate conclusion. The following provides a geographical overview of the Nile River basin. According to an article in the New York Times "Without the Nile, there is no Egypt." (Walsh & Sengupta, 2020). The construction in 2011 of the largest dam "Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam" also known as GERD has caused dispute for centuries between Egypt and Ethiopia, which despite several negotiations, also with the African Union as a mediator, cannot agree on the utilization of the dam. Egypt obtains most of the water it needs from the Nile which flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia into the Blue Nile and from Lake Victoria originating in the White Nile, which crosses the borders of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Ethiopia on the other side is one of the countries with one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, at the same time over half of the population in the country live without electricity, which could be remedied by the construction and use of the dam. However, Egypt fears that Ethiopia could now gain control over the flow of the river, citing an old Anglo-Egyptian colonial treaty signed between the United Kingdom and Egypt on behalf of Ethiopia in 1929 that promises Egypt veto power and rights over the distribution and use of the Nile waters to this day.