Ethiopia on Thursday boosted power production from the second turbine at its controversial Blue Nile mega-dam, despite ongoing objections to the project from Egypt and Sudan.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also confirmed that a third filling of the multi-billion dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was underway, a development that prompted Egypt to protest before the UN Security Council last month.
Thursday’s move came despite there still being no agreement between Ethiopia and its downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan on GERD’s operations.
But Abiy tried to reassure the two countries about the implications of the $4.2 billion project and called for negotiations to reach an agreement.
“Any other option will not stop what we have started and will be pointless,” he said.
Abiy insisted the third fill of what is expected to be the largest hydroelectric power station in Africa did not cause water shortages downstream.
“We have repeatedly said to downstream countries, especially Egypt and Sudan, that by generating electricity, we are developing our economy, as well as (our desire) that our citizens living in the dark will see light,” he said.
There is “no goal to marginalize these countries and harm them,” he said.
During a ceremony televised in Ethiopia, Abiy pressed a button to start the second turbine.
– 83 percent complete –
Ethiopia first began generating electricity at the dam in February. The two turbines, out of a total of 13 at the dam, currently have a capacity to generate 750 megawatts of electricity.
The GERD is expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts, more than doubling Ethiopia’s current output.
Project manager Kifle Horo said that overall the dam is more than 83 percent complete and that the goal is to complete it in the next two and a half years.
Last month, Cairo wrote to the Security Council objecting to Ethiopia’s plans to fill the dam for a third year without a three-way deal.
Egypt depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water and sees the dam as an existential threat.
Sudan hopes the project will regulate annual flooding but fears its own dams could be damaged without an agreement on how to operate the GERD.
Both have long been pushing for a binding agreement to fill and operate the giant dam, but African Union-sponsored talks have failed to yield a breakthrough.
The filling process of the GERD’s huge reservoir with a total capacity of 74 billion cubic meters started in 2020.
The new US envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, discussed the project during visits to Ethiopia and Egypt last month.
“We are actively committed to supporting a diplomatic pathway, under the auspices of the African Union, leading to an agreement that addresses the long-term needs of all citizens along the Nile,” he said in Egypt.
The 145-meter (475-foot) structure spans the Blue Nile in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of western Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan.
The project was initiated under former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012.
#Ethiopia #starts #generating #electricity #turbine #mega #dam
