Completing the GERD Despite Adversities

April 15, 2023   

BY FITSUM GETACHEW

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, GERD, is now entering its thirteenth year since the launch of the project and is approaching fast its completion. A few days ago there were various programs to mark the twelve anniversary of its commencement. It has been twelve very significant years full of events, some unpleasant, others very encouraging and meaningful. The most important of all these reactions to the launching of the project is the one that was experienced here in Ethiopia itself.

Ethiopians of all walks of life have heeded the call of the government that they should show to the world their solidarity and support of the project by financing it with all the means they have. Accordingly, funds were raised using all the systems and manners possible, and billions of birr were gathered. Ethiopians did not shun from supporting the construction alleging that they do not have the means as they are struggling to win their livelihoods themselves.

GERD is a national project that was meant to be carried out using local resources only, without resorting to loans, concessions or grants. Ethiopia did think of launching this project decades ago, but its attempt to secure loans from international financial institutions were aborted by the ‘influence’ Egypt imposed on them arguing that financing a dam on the Nile would be an attempt to undermine its national sovereignty and security and that not even a drop of water from the Nile should be reduced to build a dam on it.

Any government or financial institution that facilitated such a project siding with Ethiopia would be considered as an ‘enemy’. Given the consideration that Egypt had managed to obtain in the international scene the project could not be facilitated and Ethiopia was forced to refrain from launching such project. The argument that Egypt and its allies presented was that Ethiopia did not need to build a dam across the Nile as it avails multiple sources of water and rivers where it can do it and that it has a lot of rain water contrarily to Egypt whose survival was founded on the Nile water alone. Such myth was invented and propagated by Egypt and its allies and whenever a dam was prospected on the Nile it was considered as an act of hostility against Egypt’s survival and sovereignty.

The saying ‘Ethiopia is the water tower of Africa’ has erroneously contributed to this myth and the position of Egypt was supported by such qualifications. Research has however demonstrated that Ethiopia is not a water tower at all, because otherwise millions would not suffer from scarcity of water and correspondent scarcity of food. Ethiopia’s agriculture relies on rain water and yet whenever the rains fail for a couple of years or so, as it has often been the norm rather than the exception these last decades, Ethiopians have suffered of drought and this has even resulted in to famine. No one forgets the famine of the nineteen seventies when thousands perished, hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their habitats migrating to other areas.

Ethiopians have always wondered why they should not exploit the riches of the Abay or Nile while they are suffering from all sorts of scarcity. Lower riparian countries have been taking full advantage of this situation and there has never been a case of water scarcity in those countries. Contrarily, the Nile water is even made to flow into the Mediterranean Sea after it has fulfilled the needs of these countries.

They have built multiple dams and they have used the water to irrigate all their vast plantations of cotton, cereals and fruits of all kinds. There has never been an interruption of water in these countries thanks to the Nile. And yet none of these countries contribute to the water. And they never even consulted Ethiopia about its problems of water shortages.

Contrarily Ethiopia suffers from shortages of water and tens of millions do not even have potable water. What is even worse is that more than sixty million of its one hundred twenty million citizens live in the dark as they do not have access to electricity. And yet the Abay flows idly to neighboring countries without contributing anything to its compatriots! Abay is part of Ethiopians arts and culture and folklore in the various poetry and stories that are told around it.

It is almost always expressed in negative terms because people know it does not help alleviate the poverty of citizens while it is the life line of others outside where it travels. There are songs around the Abay River which admire its beauty but has not been as valuable as it could have been. This is of course not the fault of Abay but those who administered the country who could not come up with a viable plan to exploit it adequately.

Lack of resources could not be a justification to keep millions in the dark while some method should have been invented either to face the issue internationally using all the influence possible and secure some sort of loan to be able to finance a dam on the river or come up with some internal capability and do it. After all, Ethiopia was now a big nation with a great influence in Africa and beyond.

It is not the Ethiopia of the nineteenth century when Egypt, Sudan and England managed to exclude it from the usage of its own resource using a colonial arrangement which was characteristic of those years. Ethiopia did oppose the pact and rejected it but it was colonial times and the country was busy with other matters rather than engage in hostilities with those countries. It had to wait a century to make its rights count.

In the meantime, times have changed and Ethiopia’s position in the world has also changed. Its economy has grown and the immediate need of more and more power was an undeniable fact and the government was almost forced to think of such a project in order to meet the urgent needs and demands of the population to make a step up towards development and industrialization because a growing population with more than one hundred twenty million most of whom are youths do have lots of needs.

The only way out was to exploit all the natural resources of the country one of which is the Nile water. Hence, there was no alternative to constructing a hydropower dam to generate thousands of megawatts to cover the increasing needs of Ethiopians not only to bring electricity to all homes of the country but also to avail cheap and clean energy to the growing industries of the country.

The scores of industrial parks already constructed and lack a lot of energy and the ones that are in the pipeline all need desperately electric power. There is no other means other than the building of dams not only on the Abay but also on the other less famous rivers in the country. The expansion of the economy cannot be arrested because the population continues to grow and the needs continue to expand. The government is required to take care of its people with all the means available and if it is beyond its capacity, it has to ask for solidarity from the industrialized countries and international NGOs to manage and address these challenges.

In this regard, the construction of the GERD is only one step towards the realization of self reliance of Ethiopia’s economy because the GERD is really a game changer in many respects. For Ethiopians it is a vindication of all the time lost due to various reasons when it should have managed to do it earlier. GERD is a symbol and expression of the sovereignty of Ethiopia and that is why all Ethiopians of all walks of life, all Ethiopians not only at home but also in the diaspora, have invested all of their monies in this huge flagship project. They have also invested morally because they view it as their child and have been nurturing it for the last twelve years despite all sorts of adversities.

The controversies around the construction of this dam have been mainly orchestrated by the old perception of Egyptian politicians particularly those extremists who would like to convince their nationals that the Nile is Egypt’s exclusive property handed to them by God despite the fact that it originates in Ethiopia and has been transporting all the fertile soil and water from the highlands of Ethiopia without a drop of it being contributed by Egypt.

These politicians know what the real facts are. Yet they continue to advance unacceptable notions around the Nile and for decades have managed to block Ethiopia’s ventures to develop the Nile into something valuable for its people without affecting their legitimate share of the water. It is known that international transboundary rivers have their own legal regime and Ethiopia has always respected international law and practice.

The GERD does not violate any of the above norms and it has been witnessed by experts and academics in the field. Egypt’s attempts to stifle the construction of the GERD have apparently been motivated by the desire to continue its hegemony over the water. It always enjoyed it until Ethiopia began to think of taking its legitimate share of the water. Every reasonable government in the world has sustained the stance of Ethiopia as long as the GERD does not do significant harm on the lower riparian countries. The current state of affairs in international politics does not allow for monopolies and hegemonies when the legitimate interests and rights of other nations are encroached upon.

Ethiopia has the right to use its own resources without the hindrance of others as long as it does not encroach on the rights of others. Negotiations have been carried out between the Nile basin countries on the way of cooperation rather than confrontation but the stance of Egypt has resulted to be staunchly hegemonic trying to control the Nile for its benefits only and this cannot be accepted by other nations. Egypt has tried to convince the international community that Ethiopia is trying to ‘starve it to death’ by constructing a dam on the Nile.

But Ethiopia has been battling to show to the world that nothing is further than the truth. In fact Ethiopia is respecting the Declaration of Principles that Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have themselves signed a few years ago. The recent maneuvers in the government circles of Egypt that seem to threaten Ethiopia if it continues with the construction of the GERD without signing an agreement with Egypt seems only another desperate attempt to stop Ethiopians from adequately using their resource for the advancement of their economy just as Egypt and Sudan have been using the Nile to advance their economies.

A few days ago there was a workshop on transboundary rivers and this issue was among the core subjects raised and various detailed explanations were given. On that occasion, Ethiopian researchers and academics who work on water politics and international waters were asked to show to the world their research how unfounded Egypt’s claims are and that they are only a reflection of their hegemonic attitude they had advanced for decades and that Ethiopia’s stance was legal and legitimate.

The world should realize particularly those who have blindly been lining up with the stance of Egypt that the facts are not what it sells but the contrary. Ethiopia is forced by circumstances to develop the Nile water to its usage because it could not go ahead threatening the livelihood of tens of millions of people and there are no manners of monopolizing the use of a transboundary river.

Ethiopia continues to stretch its hand towards Egypt and Sudan to be able to reach a reasonable compromise on the Abay without any one of the three being endangered by scarcities. Trying to internationalize or politicize the issue does not serve any one of the three. Ethiopia in the meantime is preparing to complete the dam shortly and the fourth round of the filling is inevitable. Once the dam is complete it is capable of availing cheap and clean power even to neighboring countries and this is one more motive for regional economic integration.

The Ethiopian Herald April 15/2023