Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is one of Africa’s biggest infrastructure projects. Built on the Blue Nile River near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, the $5 billion dam will generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity annually. The project aims to turn Ethiopia into Africa’s biggest hydroelectric exporter.
But the dam has been controversial from the get-go. The Blue Nile is one of two sources for the River Nile, providing 85% of the water that flows north through Sudan and Egypt, to the Mediterranean. Colonial-era agreements mean Egypt and Sudan, which rely on the river for their water supply, have maintained control over the river in the past — but Ethiopia’s dam threatens this. Years of negotiations between the three countries have so far proved unsuccessful. Ethiopia began generating electricity from the dam on February 20, 2022.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1745″ width=”2618″ loading=’lazy’/>