Egypt had asked the UNSC to push the three countries to adhere to their obligations in accordance with the rules of international law in order to reach a fair and balanced solution to the issue of the GERD. Egypts repeated references to the rules of international law is part of an effort to maintain its so-called natural and historical rights that were established and reaffirmed by the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and 1959 Agreement between Egypt and Sudan, respectivelytreaties many of the other involved parties reject as anachronistic and untenable. Such a meaningful resource-sharing agreement should not only resolve the conflict over water-use rights among the riparian states, but it should help define concepts such as equitable and reasonable use and significant harm, which have been used by the downstream states in their criticisms of the GERD. Practically from the outset, the World Bank and international donors withdrew funding due to a lack of transparency, driven home when it was learned that the construction had begun without a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency in Ethiopia. They generate electricity, store water for crop irrigation and help to prevent floods. The most important of these treaties is the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the Watercourses Convention). The largest permanent desert lake in the world, Turkana has three national parks that are now listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The decisions that this group renders must be binding on all riparian states. The unilateral decision taken by Ethiopia - which never recognised the 1959 agreement but had previously not been able to challenge it in fact - to build the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011 represents a major political challenge to the 1959 Agreement. What could have been strictly technical negotiations have turned into a political deadlock. It states in Principle III that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm. In terms of the current status of talks, in 2019, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin began facilitating negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia which led to some tentative progress. On Feb. 26, Ethiopia temporarily suspended its . According to present plans, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) now under construction across the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, and one of the 12 largest in the world. In that light, Egypt should minimize trips to Washington, D.C., New York, and Brussels, and instead use its diplomatic resources to improve its relations with the other riparian states. . This is because the VCLT allows an older treaty to be rescinded by a new one if the new one concerns the same topic (Article 59). We shall begin with the former. Benefits from the Nile's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Rural 21 When it is completed, with its concrete volume of 10.2 million m3, GERD will feature the largest dam in Africa. If it is allowed to reach dangerous levels, water scarcity has the potential to trigger conflicts. Moreover, with GERD, Ethiopia opts for a hydropower expansion strategy on the Blue Nile, and not an irrigation strategy. Another impressive snippet of information is that the Government of Ethiopia is financing the entire project, along with loans mainly from China. One senior advisor to former Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi alluded to it when he said that Ethiopia will supply the electricity, Sudan the food, and Egypt the money. To which we might add, and South Sudan will supply the oil.. Von Lossow, T. & Roll, S. (2015). Ethiopia, with a population of more than 115 million people and Projected to be 230 million by 2050. It will be the largest hydropower project in Africa. Given these considerations, it seems that Ethiopia has all but won the dispute. Some have mythified it and claim it is the Gihon River of the Biblical Book of Genesis that encircles the entire land of Cush, thereby adding a religious dimension to the politicisation. According to some estimates, the Ethiopian government had to arrange for the resettlement of 1.5 million people in the four regions of Gambela, Somali, Afar, and Benishangul-Gumuz. Egypt relies on the river for as much as 90 percent of its freshwater and sees the new dam as an existential . Ethiopias interests in developing its water resources are driven by its growing population and high demand for socio-economic development (Gebreluel, 2014). A regional framework for the management of the Nile already existsthe Nile Basin Initiative mentioned abovewhich is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that was launched in 1999. While the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is taking shape on . Similarly, in 2018, the UNSC noted the water security risks in African nations such as Somalia, Sudan and Mali. The Politics Of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Analysis Ethiopia's determination to build a major new dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), for hydropower purposes has been the flashpoint of current conflicts in the Eastern Nile Basin (Gebreluel, 2014). 74 cubic metres. I agree with the delivery of the newsletter. Although the case has been dropped, the organisations work focused international attention on the dams potential detrimental impacts on the lakes habitat. July 26, 2022. The GERD and the Revival of the Egyptian-Sudanese Dispute over the Nile Waters. The Eastern Nile Basin is of critical geopolitical importance to the Niles overall hydro-political regime. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. For example, Ethiopians and Egyptians are more likely to understand and appreciate the challenges that they face, particularly in the areas of water security, climate change, food production, and poverty alleviation, if they regularly interact with each other and engage in more bottom-up, participatory and inclusive approaches to the resolution of their conflicts. The Untold Story of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam The Political Deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This exception was implemented to mitigate the risk of decolonisation leading to boundary wars. It could be a treaty or merely a political declaration as the name implies. In short, the Nile Waters Treaties do little to constrain Ethiopias ability to construct the Dam. However, it also makes useful concessions to Egypt which it may wish to press. Ethiopia has two major plans for these rivers, which both flow into Somalia, in the form of the Wabe Shebelle and the Genale Dawa power plants. Here, for the first time, Egypt recognised Ethiopias right to use the Nile for development purposes. Misplaced Opposition to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD): Update. But the project has caused concern. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia - Webuild Project Salman, S.M.A. The Nile riparians must understand that the river is a common resource whose effective management must be approached from a basin-wide perspective. Nevertheless, Khartoum continues to fear that the operation of the GERD could threaten the safety of Sudans own dams and make it much more difficult for the government to manage its own development projects. As early as 1957, Ethiopian officials said that the Somalian economy could not survive on its own given how heavily dependent it was on Ethiopia. The change of government in Egypt led to a more conciliatory approach (Von Lossow & Roll, 2015). Despite the intense disagreements, though, Ethiopia continues to move forward with the dam, arguing that the hydroelectric project will significantly improve livelihoods in the region more broadly. The late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who laid the foundation stone in 2011, said the dam would be built without begging for money . Already, on June 19, 2020, Egyptian authorities called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to intervene after tripartite talks had failed to secure an agreement on the filling schedule for the GERD. The other riparian states can then be brought in, either through the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) or some other regional framework, to secure an agreement that is binding on all the states. On March 4, 1982, Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have expressed concerns over the impacts of the dam on their water supply. They can also cause dispute and heartachefor example, over damage to. Addis Ababa has said the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4bn hydropower project, is crucial to its economic development and to provide power. Water Politics and the Gulf States: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Another difficulty for Egypt is that making this argument (i.e. Afraid that a drought might appear during the filling period, Egypt wants the filling to take place over a much longer period. These two factors could become serious problems. Ethiopia needs regional customers for its hydropower to ensure the economic feasibility of the GERD. Learn. Who Is Financing Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam? Egypt has issued a public statement to that effect. The significance of Gulf involvement was highlighted by the . On March 4, 1834, the town of York in the British colony of Canada was incorporated as the City of Toronto. Following the fall of Mengistu Haile-Mariams regime in Ethiopia in 1991, Ethiopia experienced a remarkable rise in the construction of dams and hydroelectric power stations. These run from rising rivalry between Egypt and Ethiopia to a festering border war between Ethiopia and neighboring Sudan. Stratfor Worldview. Ethiopias dam-construction strategy threatens not only Kenyas water-resource development efforts but also Somalias water security, as is evidenced by Ethiopias development plans for the Jubba and Shebelle Rivers. Since 2015, technical reports on the potential impacts of the dam have failed to reach a consensus within the TNC (Maguid, 2017). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source of cooperation or - USGS when did construction of the dam begin? It seeks to build an infrastructure for regional water hegemony, positioning it, at the very least, in such a way that it can exchange water for oil. Ethiopia and Sudan are currently developing and implementing water infrastructure developments unilaterally - as Egypt has done in the past and continues to do. On the contrary, GERD has a positive impact in terms of reducing flood and silting and boost water conservation as well as generate energy for the region. The Ethiopian government is spending $4.7 billion to construct the 1,780-meter dam across the Blue Nile. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - ArcGIS StoryMaps It concludes that Ethiopias legal position is far stronger and that a negotiated agreement in its favour is the most likely outcome of the dispute. Swain, A. Cairo Controversy prevailed in the Egyptian public opinion, after Deltares, a Dutch advisory institute, announced on Sept. 15 its withdrawal from a study to assess the risks that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile, can cause to Egypt and Sudan. l located on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia . It has also expressed concerns about the potential impact the initial filling of the dam will have on areas downstream. Article 7 provides that watercourse states must take all appropriate measures to prevent significant harm to other watercourse States and that, where harm does occur, there shall be consultations to discuss the question of compensation. Finally, Article 8 requires that watercourse states cooperate on the basis of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutual benefit and good faith.. The Grand Renaissance Dam - Ethiopia's greatest risk It can be demand-driven, typically caused by population growth, and supply-driven, typically caused by decreasing amounts of fresh water often resulting from climate change or a result of societal factors such as poverty. Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an existential threat, as it fears the dam will negatively impact the countrys water supplies. Learn. Egypts original goal was to have the project purely and simply cancelled. "The Israeli installation of the missile system around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was completed after the Israeli work began in May 2019, considering that it is the first Israeli air defense system abroad that can launch (two types of missiles), the first with a range of 5 km, and the second with a range of 50 kilometer". "I came to Cairo on my first official trip to the region to hear . Alaa al-Zawahiri, a member of the Egyptian National Panel of Experts studying the effects of the Renaissance Dam, believes as much. It's free to sign up and bid on jobs. Egypt has also escalated its call to the international community to get involved. For nearly a century, as a legacy of colonialism, Egypt enjoyed what Tekuya referred to as a hydro-hegemony over the Nile; despite Ethiopia contributing 86% to its waters. [35] The lack of international financing for projects on the Blue Nile River has persistently been attributed to Egypt's campaign to keep control on the Nile water share. l Coordinates 111255N 3505 . Ethiopia also seems to have the political upper hand given that the Dam is effectively a fait accompli and given that Egypts erstwhile downstream ally, Sudan, switched sides in the dispute leaving the Egyptians diplomatically isolated. As a result, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has recognised water security as a possible threat to international peace. Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan reach 'major common understanding' on dam. That seems unlikely given that the DoP concerns the Dam alone and was agreed only between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan; whereas the Nile Waters Treaties concern the whole Nile Basin and involve many more states. Learn the history of Toronto from the city's official website. A significant segment of local opinion is also aware of the well-known problems that come with mega-dams wherever they are built, among them population displacements and resettlement, reductions in the quality of life, the spread of waterborne diseases, salinisation and the loss of productive and profitable lands, more intense competition over the remaining available land, and losses of cultural and historic heritage. Perhaps even more consequential is the fact that this agreement granted Egypt veto power over future Nile River projects. Even without taking the dam into account, the largely desert country is short of water. Ethiopia rejects Arab League resolution on Renaissance Dam First woman appointed to the Canada Supreme Court. In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. Ultimately, all the water is allowed to pass downstream such that there is no net loss of flow (with the exception of water lost to evaporation). Test. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have negative impacts not only on Egypt but also on poor communities in Ethiopia as well as on its Nile Basin neighbours. Despite several tripartite meetings between November 2013 and January 2014, no agreement was reached on the implementation of the IPoE recommendations and controversies were evolving around the constitution of a trilateral committee. disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam The 1959 agreement allocated all the Nile Rivers waters to Egypt and Sudan, leaving 10 billion cubic meters (b.c.m.) Before discussing the benefits, the article will brief the general technical overview of the GERDP. Poverty alleviation, which is a major concern for all Nile Basin countries, could form the basis of a cooperative arrangement between all the Niles riparians. To date, no significant harm has been caused to Egypt or Sudan as a result of the ongoing construction of the GERD. This was an attempt at a wholesale replacement for the Nile Waters Treaties. Despite the fact that newly independent Sudan in the late 1950s was literally forced by a dominant Egypt into a highly asymmetrical water-sharing arrangement, Sudan has rarely challenged this arrangement.
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