Addis Ababa [Ethiopia], September 10: Africa's largest hydroelectric dam was officially inaugurated in Ethiopia on Tuesday, with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed insisting the project is no threat to concerned neighbours Sudan and Egypt.
The $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which straddles the Blue Nile outside the town of Bameza near Ethiopia's northwestern border with Sudan, is seen as central to the country's economic ambitions.
Under construction since 2011, the dam's turbines were first turned on in 2022 and reached their maximum capacity of 5,150 megawatts ahead of Tuesday's official inauguration.
Ethiopia: GERD a 'great achievement for all black people'
Speaking to dignitaries including the presidents of Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya, Prime Minister Abiy said the GERD was a "great achievement not only for Ethiopia but for all black people."
Inviting "all black people to visit the dam," he said it "demonstrates that we, as black people, can achieve anything we plan."
The inauguration festivities began the night before with a dazzling light show including lasers and drones spelling out slogans such as "geopolitical rise" and "a leap into the future."
According to local media, the project has been funded exclusively with Ethiopian money and without foreign assistance. Ethiopia's central bank reportedly provided 91% of the funding while the remaining 9% was financed by Ethiopians through bond sales and gifts.
"It has been a banner to rally under, and it shows what we can achieve when unified," said Mekdelawit Messay, an Ethiopian water researcher at Florida International University.
GERD: Ethiopia tries to reassure Egypt and Sudan
Addressing long-held concerns by northern neighbors Sudan and Egypt over Ethiopian control of water supply to the vital River Nile, into which the Blue Nile flows, Abiy said: "Ethiopia built the dam to prosper, to electrify the entire region and to change the history of black people. It is absolutely not to harm its brothers."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called the dam an "existential threat" and vowed Cairo would take all necessary measures under international law to defend its water security.
"Whoever thinks Egypt will turn a blind eye to its water rights is mistaken," he told reporters last month.
But Ethiopia claims that the dam will actually be beneficial to its upstream neighbors, since water will now flow through the turbines to generate electricity before continuing northwards, rather than being siphoned off for use in irrigation in Ethiopia.
According to World Bank data, some 45% of Ethiopia's 132-million population lack electricity, and blackouts in the capital Addis Ababa regularly force businesses and households to fall back on generators.
"This country that was dark in the evening when I first arrived here is now selling energy to neighboring countries," said Pietro Salini, CEO of Webuild, the Italian construction which built the dam.
Indeed, Ethiopia has already signed electricity contracts with Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti, and discussions are underway with other neighbouring countries.
"It is no longer a dream but a fact," Salini told the AFP news agency.
Source: Times of Oman
