NEWS: ETHIOPIA SAYS MEGA-DAM WILL BE INAUGURATED WITHIN SIX MONTHS

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Agency Report

Ethiopia’s leader said Thursday that a contentious multi-billion-dollar mega-dam on the Blue Nile will be inaugurated “in the next six months”.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Addis Ababa has deemed vital for its electrification programme, has long been a source of tensions with downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.

“In the next six months, we will cut a ribbon together,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told parliament, without giving more details.

“The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will be a historic event at the beginning of the next Ethiopian year,” Abiy said, due around September.

Ethiopia first began generating electricity at the $4.2-billion project, located in the northwest of the country around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Sudan, in February 2022.

At full capacity, the huge dam — 1.8 kilometres long and 145 metres high, with a capacity of up to 74 billion cubic metres of water — could generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power.

That would make it Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam and more than double Ethiopia’s current output.

Egypt and Sudan have voiced concerns about its operation without a three-way agreement, fearing it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters. On-off negotiations have failed to make a breakthrough.

Egypt, which is already suffering from severe water scarcity, sees the dam as an existential threat because it relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water needs.

The position of fragile Sudan, which is currently mired in a civil war, has fluctuated in recent years.

Ethiopia insists the dam will not reduce the volume of water flowing downstream.