Ethiopia inaugurates continent’s biggest dam as Egypt warns of ‘existential threat’

Ethiopia has officially inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa’s largest hydroelectric power project, marking a moment of national pride at home but reigniting fears downstream in Egypt and Sudan.

Prime minister Abiy Ahmed presided over Tuesday’s opening, hailing the $4 billion megastructure as “a great achievement for all black people.” He urged visitors from across the continent to see the dam as proof of African self-reliance. “It is no longer a dream but a fact,” Abiy said, underscoring his government’s portrayal of the project as a unifying symbol in a country long divided by conflict.

Read also:Dangote seals $2.5bn deal with Ethiopia for mega fertiliser plant

Towering 145 metres high and spanning nearly two kilometres across the Blue Nile, near the Sudanese border, the dam is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity. That is more than double Ethiopia’s current capacity, and could transform the energy outlook for a nation where 45 percent of people still live without power. Addis Ababa suffers frequent blackouts, and officials say the GERD will not only supply homes and industries but also export electricity to neighbouring countries.

Read also: Lessons for Nigeria as Ethiopian Airlines open Africa’s largest aircraft maintenance hub

The project has been a decade in the making, enduring civil war, financial hurdles and technical challenges since work began in 2011. Pietro Salini, chief executive of Italian construction firm Webuild, which built the dam, said the team persevered despite enormous obstacles. “This country that was dark in the evening when I first arrived here… is selling energy to neighbouring countries,” he noted at the ceremony.

But Ethiopia’s triumph is viewed very differently in Cairo. Egypt, where 110 million people depend on the Nile for 97 percent of their water, regards the GERD as an existential risk. With almost no rainfall of its own, the country fears any disruption to river flow could devastate farming, industry and daily life.

Read also: From seed to success: Ethiopia’s wheat boom holds key for Nigeria

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has repeatedly warned that Egypt will defend its water security by all means allowed under international law. “Whoever thinks Egypt will turn a blind eye to its water rights is mistaken,” he told reporters last month.

Sudan, too, has voiced concern about how the dam could affect water flows and its own safety, though its position has often shifted between cooperation and suspicion.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute have repeatedly collapsed. Over the past decade, the United States, Russia, the World Bank, the African Union and the United Arab Emirates have all tried to broker a deal without lasting success.