The start of a new era

Nairobi, Kenya – Ethiopia is set to meet its domestic electricity demands and consequently facilitate its economic development thanks to the inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Expected to be Africa’s largest hydropower facility, the dam’s first turbine began generating electricity. The $4.2-billion (3.7-billion-euro) dam is ultimately expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity, more than doubling Ethiopia’s current output. Only one of 13 turbines is currently operational, with a capacity of 375 megawatts.

A second will come online within a few months, project manager Kifle Horo told AFP, adding that the dam is currently expected to be fully completed in 2024.

The 145-metre (475-foot) high structure straddles the Blue Nile in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of western Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, accompanied by high-ranking officials, toured the power station and pressed a series of buttons on an electronic screen, a move that officials said initiated production.

He said the start of power production is good news for Africa and the downstream countries which the East African country aspires to work with.

“As Ethiopia marks the birth of a new era, I congratulate all Ethiopians,” Ahmed tweeted.

The first power generation comes as Ethiopia’s downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat to reduce the volume of water reaching their territories.

Egypt fears that a shorter filling period of the dam’s reservoir could decrease the country’s water share, consequently affecting agriculture.

Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 per cent of its irrigation and drinking water, sees it as an existential threat. Addis Ababa deems the project essential for the electrification and development of Africa’s second most populous country, but Cairo and Khartoum fear it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters.

Abiy dismissed those concerns.

“As you can see this water will generate energy while flowing as it previously flowed to Sudan and Egypt, unlike the rumours that say the Ethiopian people and government are damming the water to starve Egypt and Sudan,” he said as water rushed through the concrete colossus behind him. “The dam’s electricity generation is a blessing for the downstream countries too. We want to export our pollution-free power to Europe through Sudan and Egypt,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed added that Egypt will benefit from water conservation at the dam.

“It is time for our three countries of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to nurture the narrative toward building peace, cooperation, mutual coexistence and development of all our people without harming one another.”

Sudan hopes the project will regulate annual flooding, but fears its own dams could be harmed without agreement on the GERD’s operation. Both have long been pushing for a binding deal over the filling and operation of the massive dam, but African Union-sponsored talks have failed to achieve a breakthrough.

William Davison, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the GERD is seen domestically “as a symbol of Ethiopia resisting external pressure”.

“The government has propagated the idea that foreign actors are trying to undermine Ethiopia’s sovereignty, so I think this will be cast as showing they are still making progress despite a hostile environment.”

Addisu Lashitew of the Brookings Institution in Washington described the GERD’s commissioning as a “rare positive development that can unite a deeply fractured country” after 15 months of brutal conflict with Tigrayan rebels.

“The newly-generated electricity from the GERD could help revive an economy that has been devastated by the combined forces of a deadly war, rising fuel prices and the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

The process of filling the vast reservoir began in 2020, with Ethiopia announcing in July of that year it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic metres.

The reservoir’s total capacity is 74 billion cubic metres, and the target for 2021 was to add 13.5 billion.

Last July Ethiopia said it had hit that target, meaning there was enough water to begin producing energy, although some experts had cast doubt on the claims.

Kifle declined to reveal how much water was collected last year or what the target is for the coming rainy season.