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Jul 30, 2020 / in Blog Articles, News Articles
ETHIOPIA’S GRAND RENAISSANCE NILE DAM

It’s filling at too hasty a pace could spark a regional war

The annual June- September rains are under way and filling of the giant dam has begun. The water is not
for irrigation but is needed to power Africa’s biggest hydroelectric power plant. So why the big fuss from
Egypt? Because Egypt relies on 90 percent of its water from the Nile and it can ill afford any significant
interruption in the river’s flow.

Although Ethiopia will not be consuming water from this massive 74 billion cubic meter capacity
reservoir, it has to store sufficient water in order to start generating electricity with two generators in
December. So Egypt needs a stable flow of water and Ethiopia needs enough water in the dam to begin
power generation.

Egypt wants Ethiopia to take at least 12 years to fill the dam so as to ensure that there is no dramatic
drop in the Nile’s flow thereby putting Egypt’s survival in jeopardy. Ethiopia, on the other hand, wants to
do it in 6 years because of its acute shortage of electricity with only 35 percent of the population
connected to the existing grid.

The Grand Renaissance dam is projected to cost US$4 billion and be able to generate 6 000 megawatts
of electricity, sufficient for all its citizens and provide for Ethiopia’s manufacturing and industrial
aspirations as well as becoming Africa’s biggest exporter of electricity.

Beneficiaries apart from Ethiopia would be South Sudan, Kenya, Eritrea, and other countries who are
somewhat deprived of electricity. Then too Sudan which suffers from annual Nile flooding during August
and September would benefit from a stable river flow.

Will the filling of the dam lead to war? Only time will tell but there is a lot at stake.

We at Filcon Filters will continue to talk about matters relating to water. We are committed to providing
quality products for reusing, filtering and sanitizing water from reliable suppliers.


Photo by Trevor Cole on Unsplash