Ethiopia has opened the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, which Egypt opposed, fearing water shortages.
This is reported by Gurdian.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which stretches almost 2 km and rises to a height of 170 meters, is located on the Blue Nile River in the northwest of the country.
Its construction cost $4 billion, with 91% of this amount provided by the Central Bank of Ethiopia, and the remaining funds coming from Ethiopians through bond sales and donations.
The hydroelectric power plant is expected to produce 5,150 megawatts of electricity, making it one of the 20 largest in the world.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali stressed that it was built to “electrify the entire region and change the history of black people.” He was joined at the ceremony by the presidents of Kenya and Somalia, as well as the head of the African Union.
However, the construction of the new hydroelectric power plant has raised concerns in downstream countries, particularly in Egypt and Sudan.
Egypt, which built the Aswan Dam on the Nile in the 1960s, claims that the dam in Ethiopia violates water treaties dating back to the British colonial era.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has repeatedly called the GERD an “existential threat” and promised that Egypt would protect its water security.
“Anyone who thinks Egypt will turn a blind eye to its water rights is mistaken,” he said in August.
At the same time, Ethiopia insists that the development of the project is its sovereign right, and the Ethiopian government has argued that the dam will not cause significant harm to other countries.
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