Egypt: “Ethiopia Does Not Want the Blue Nile Dam Agreement”

The GERD (Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) again provokes discussions between Egypt and Ethiopia.

The mega-project built by the Italian company Webuild consists of a large dam designed to generate hydroelectric power. The reservoir was created in Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile originates near the border with Sudan, where the river then continues its course, flows into the White Nile in the capital Kartoum, then flows into Egypt, until it flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

A dam upstream can clearly lead, even if temporarily, to water problems downstream, especially in Egypt, where the area is mostly desert and the Nile water is badly needed.

“Given that negotiations with Ethiopia have been ongoing for more than a decade without any results, I believe that the main reason is the lack of political will on the Ethiopian side to conclude such an agreement. I reiterate that the Nile water issue is an existential issue for Egypt,” told ANSA Basam Radi, Egyptian Ambassador to Rome.

This issue is related to what will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and will support Ethiopia on its path of economic development and towards the sustainable goal of becoming carbon neutral: the plant will have a total installed capacity of 5150 MW and will guarantee an estimated average production of 15,700 GWh/year.

The dam dispute also involved the African Union and the USA that mediated an agreement signed by Egypt in 2020 but which Ethiopia refuses to sign.

Also, according to Cairo, Ethiopia would violate international law by starting to fill the basin without first reaching an agreement with other states affected by the Nile.