Africa's biggest dam?

Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a $4.2 billion
dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 kms
from its border with Sudan, is expected to
provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough
for its population plus some excess it can sell to
neighbouring countries.
Dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, it
will be Africa's biggest dam and will depend on
water from the 6,700-km Nile River, the world's
longest river.
But Ethiopia must first resolve matters with
Egypt, which, along with Sudan, claims the rights
to the river following a 1929 agreement. That
agreement excluded other countries along the Nile
River trajectory, such as Ethiopia, Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Egypt fears that
the dam will suck up water flows to the country
and severely affect its domestic consumption.
About 86% of the Nile River's water actually
originates from Ethiopia, a point the country is
underscoring to press its case. In addition, it says
that independent experts believe the dam will not
affect water flows to Egypt. "There should not be
any concerns about a diminished water flow,"
Alemayehu Tegenu, Ethiopia's minister of water
and energy, told the Associated Press news
agency.
Such assurances have not calmed Egypt's fears.
In early June, then-president Mohammed Morsi
directed his foreign and irrigation ministers to get
more information from Ethiopia on the dam's
impact on water supply to Egypt. Although
President Morsi took a cautious approach, some
Egyptian politicians were demanding a stronger
response.
Many observers, however, believe that the
countries will find a compromise point that will
allow Ethiopia to complete the project by July
2017 and also ensure that there is no impact on
water flows to Egypt's population.
Egypt also recently launched a water
transportation route that will connect it with nine
other East African countries: Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda,
South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Managing trans-boundary water resources is not
always a complicated matter. Since 1994, for
example, Angola, Botswana, and Namibia have
successfully managed water supplies from the
1,100-km Okavango River that runs through all
three countries. They signed an agreement to
coordinate water sharing and sustainable use,
and even set up the Permanent Okavango River
Basin Water Commission to monitor the
agreement.