The conflict over Africa’s largest dam on the Blue Nile appears to have been settled for the time being. The Ethiopians now want to flood the dam in consultation with Egypt and Sudan. With that, the concerns about bombing are off the table.
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have reached an agreement in the dispute over the flooding of a gigantic Nile dam. The Egyptian Presidency announced that a legally binding final declaration had been reached, in which all parties committed to waive unilateral steps, including flooding the dam. The statement will be forwarded to the UN Security Council, which should discuss it on Monday.
Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said it had been agreed to “postpone the flooding until an agreement was reached”. Representatives from the three countries would draw up a final agreement within two weeks. “Sudan is one of the dam’s greatest beneficiaries, but also one of the biggest losers if risks are not mitigated,” so his country is pressing for a solution, he said.
Now that the three countries have managed to reach an agreement, peace in the entire region of Northeast Africa should be ensured for the time being. In the past, there were still reports that the Egyptian government was planning to bomb the dam if necessary.
Ethiopia wants to become Africa’s largest electricity exporter
Ethiopia began building its Renaissance dam, the largest project of its kind in Africa, nine years ago. Construction cost: $ 4 billion. The dam will dam the water of the Blue Nile, an important tributary to the main stream, for power generation. Ethiopia emphasizes that the dam is essential for the country’s energy supply and development.
The 1.8-kilometer-long and 145-meter-high building is scheduled to go into full operation in 2022 and then produce more than 5000 megawatts of electricity annually. The pool should start flooding in July. Ethiopia urgently needs electricity and should become the largest electricity exporter in Africa with the project.
The anger in Cairo was great
Egypt would suffer from the project. Calculations have shown that if Ethiopia built up the lake within ten years, the country would lose 14 percent of its Nile water and 18 percent of its agricultural area. With a stagnation period of seven years, as the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is striving for, Egypt would even lose 22 percent of the Nile water and about 30 percent of its fertile soil. According to Egyptian politicians that would be a disaster. The anger in Cairo was correspondingly great.
In January, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan negotiated a compromise through the mediation of the United States. Among other things, he provided that the reservoir should only be filled during the rainy season, i.e. in the months of July and August and possibly even in September. So far only Egypt had signed the paper.
Egypt intervened at the UN Security Council
Ethiopia backed off, saying it needed more time for internal consultations. Sudan was actually interested in the cheap electricity the dam is supposed to generate. Regulation of the river water by the structure could be helpful for Sudanese agriculture. But then Sudan saw itself more on the side of Egypt.
Cairo asked the UN Security Council to mediate the dispute last week. “The direct consequences for Egypt from the construction of the dam will be enormous,” said the former Egyptian water minister Mohammed Nasser Allam. Agricultural land would become unusable, the groundwater level would drop, and the sea water would salinize the Nile Delta.
With information from Carsten Kühntopp, ARD-Studio Cairo
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