The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, currently being constructed by Ethiopia on the Nile River, is a grand project featuring a main dam that stretches 1.7 km and a reservoir capable of holding 74 billion cubic meters of water.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is being constructed upstream on the Nile River (specifically on the Blue Nile tributary) in the Guba region of Ethiopia (northeast Africa). The Blue Nile originates from the Ethiopian highlands, flows into Sudan, and merges with the White Nile at Khartoum (the capital of Sudan) to form the Nile River, which then flows through Egypt, where the Aswan Dam has been in operation since the 1960s, before finally reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Once completed, GERD will become the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa. However, this project has become a focal point of escalating controversy among the countries within the Nile basin since its inception. Ethiopia asserts that GERD marks the beginning of a new era of prosperity for the entire continent of Africa. Neighboring countries downstream of the Nile, including Egypt and Sudan, express concerns that this project (i) threatens the vital water supply of the Nile River for those nations; (ii) accelerates water storage at GERD without a comprehensive analysis of potential consequences that could lead to dam failure. Some experts have noted occurrences of subsidence, indicating that GERD could be at risk. |
