Ethiopia has the basins most suitable locations for hydropower production, and its damming of the Blue Nile would significantly increase Sudan's potential for irrigated agriculture. The Nile riparians must understand that the river is a common resource whose effective management must be approached from a basin-wide perspective. The treaties also purported to give Egypt veto power over upstream projects. Before discussing the benefits, the article will brief the general technical overview of the GERDP. Filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile River is well under way near the Ethiopia-Sudan border. First woman appointed to the Canada Supreme Court. In terms of the current status of talks, in 2019, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin began facilitating negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia which led to some tentative progress. Churning waters: Strategic shifts in the Nile basin. Moreover, it arguably prohibits any reduction of flow to Egypt by limiting Ethiopias use of the Dam to electricity generation alone. In the absence of the application of the Watercourses Convention, various other legal arrangements and political declarations must be considered to gain an understanding of the regulation of the Dam and the Nile River more generally. The three countries have agreed that when the flow of Nile water to the dam falls below 35-40 b.c.m. Note that, under Article 62(2) VCLT, territorial treaties are excepted from the change in circumstances rule. Consequently, it suits Egypts interests in this context to argue that the DoP is binding, that it precludes any net loss of flow and therefore that the use of the Dam for irrigation purposes is prohibited. The Eastern Nile Basin comprises Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The piece (i) gives a brief history of the Dam; (ii) outlines the role of the Watercourses Convention; (iii) explains the significance of the Nile Waters Treaties; (iv) sets out the main legal arguments for Egypt and (v) provides the main legal arguments for Ethiopia. Maguid, M.A. Search for jobs related to Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 22m+ jobs. The dam was named the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) because it was designed to bring about the economic and renewal of Ethiopia, a nation mentioned in Genesis 2:13 as the Land in which . The significance of Gulf involvement was highlighted by the . Learn the history of Toronto from the city's official website. On 5 July 2021, Ethiopia informed Egypt and Sudan that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia is undergoing its second filling. Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an existential threat, as it fears the dam will negatively impact the countrys water supplies. Most recently, there have been suggestions that the African Union should resolve the disagreement. However, by far the largest of these projects is the GERD, which was announced in 2010 and work on which was launched in 2011 by means of a nationwide fundraiser in which Ethiopian civil servants were reportedly obliged to volunteer a months salary to invest in GERD bonds. The GERD has the potential to act both as driver for conflict, but also for cooperation. for seepage and evaporation, but afforded no water to Ethiopia or other upstream riparian statesthe sources of most of the water that flows into the Nile. Cooperation among the three countries has never been more important as demand for water rises, she added, due to factors such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization. February 14, 2022 JPEG This dam, set to be the largest in Africa in terms of power capacity, continues to cause disagreement between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on filling and operation strategies. This article considers water security in the context of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (the Dam). The other riparian states can then be brought in, either through the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) or some other regional framework, to secure an agreement that is binding on all the states. Still, if the exception was somehow activated, it would mean that Egypt remains entitled to 66% of the Nile River waters and that this figure should be used as the baseline for any future negotiations. The change of government in Egypt led to a more conciliatory approach (Von Lossow & Roll, 2015). The Dam is used to generate electricity and went into partial operation in 2022. Nile Basins GERD dispute creates risks for Egypt, Sudan, and beyond. The Chinese then took over the funding amidst heightened international concern regarding the social, technical, and environmental repercussions of the Ethiopian dams. GIGA Focus No. However, for the reasons given above, the Nile Waters Treaties are unlikely to be considered territorial treaties. Perhaps the most obvious argument that Ethiopia may want to make is a rebuttal to Egypts continued reliance on the Nile Water Treaties. Ethiopia needs regional customers for its hydropower to ensure the economic feasibility of the GERD. The Washington Quarterly, 37(2), 25-37. Even without taking the dam into account, the largely desert country is short of water. Perhaps even more consequential is the fact that this agreement granted Egypt veto power over future Nile River projects. Why the Nile could see a 'water war'. The Watercourses Convention aims to regulate the uses, as well as the conservation, of all transboundary waters above and below the surface. Security implications of growing water scarcity in Egypt. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In order to sustain this benefit in the long run, Ethiopias neighbouring countries will have to continue to purchase hydroelectric energy, and rainfall will have to fall at the same rate on the Ethiopian Plateau. Although Egypt has persistently argued that the 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan is the legal framework for the allocation of the waters of the Nile, Ethiopia and other upstream riparian states reject that argument. Sudan, caught between the competing interests of both Egypt and Ethiopia, has been changing its stance on the issue. Disadvantages Slow process Could be washed to the wrong direction Start up costs Lesson 4: Long term investment, It can't cope with he propagation rate of water hyacinth. Cairo Controversy prevailed in the Egyptian public opinion, after Deltares, a Dutch advisory institute, announced on Sept. 15 its withdrawal from a study to assess the risks that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile, can cause to Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has the second largest population in the continent. Ethiopia Needs the United States to Act as an Honest Broker in the Nile . This represents a new challenge to the basins current hydro-political regime and status quo, as it may drive Sudans interest in renegotiating its current quota(Link et al., 2012;Whittington et al., 2014). Ultimately, all the water is allowed to pass downstream such that there is no net loss of flow (with the exception of water lost to evaporation). However, as noted above, the trouble with relying on the DoP is that its legal status is not clearly defined. Such an understanding and appreciation of Egypts water vulnerability would help the riparians develop a water management protocol that can significantly enhance equitable and reasonable use while minimizing significant harm to downstream riparians. No water at all was allocated to Ethiopia. Salman, S.M.A. Flashcards. Political instability in Egypt played an important role as the announcement of the project coincided with the resignation of President Mubarak during the Arab Spring. Link, P.M. et al. casting the DoP as a treaty) has the potential to abrogate the Nile Waters Treaties that Egypt holds so dear. Egypt has issued a public statement to that effect. Ethiopian general threatens military force to defend Nile dam as negotiations with Egypt falter. In particular, the DoP takes a very strict approach to the no significant harm rule. Afraid that a drought might appear during the filling period, Egypt wants the filling to take place over a much longer period. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is estimated to cost close to 5 billion US dollars, about 7% of the 2016 Ethiopian gross national product. It provides clear benefits to all three riparian, such as flood control, reduced flood damages and sediment control. The instrument was a success in terms of cooling tensions between the states which seemed increasingly likely to come to blows. The dispute has prompted numerous international interventions, including by Gulf Arab states, which have issued political statements and led mediation efforts. Monday January 2, 2017. Such a meaningful resource-sharing agreement should not only resolve the conflict over water-use rights among the riparian states, but it should help define concepts such as equitable and reasonable use and significant harm, which have been used by the downstream states in their criticisms of the GERD. A regional framework for the management of the Nile already existsthe Nile Basin Initiative mentioned abovewhich is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that was launched in 1999. These run from rising rivalry between Egypt and Ethiopia to a festering border war between Ethiopia and neighboring Sudan. However, it also makes useful concessions to Egypt which it may wish to press. Indeed, as Tekuya notes, Ethiopia persistently objected to the 1929 and 1959 treaties and made clear that its failure to exploit the Nile resulted from a lack of capacity rather than a lack of a legal right to do so. Ethiopia has two major plans for these rivers, which both flow into Somalia, in the form of the Wabe Shebelle and the Genale Dawa power plants. However, the DoP lacks these key traits, and these omissions suggest that it may simply be a non-binding declaration designed to ease political tensions and to illuminate a way forward. The latter, in Article 2(4), allocated acquired rights of 66% of Nile water to Egypt and 22% to Sudan (with the remaining 12% attributed to leakage). [35] The lack of international financing for projects on the Blue Nile River has persistently been attributed to Egypt's campaign to keep control on the Nile water share. Poverty alleviation, which is a major concern for all Nile Basin countries, could form the basis of a cooperative arrangement between all the Niles riparians. The current filling which is ongoing since early July 2021 has presented no issues as well. These countries should return to the NBIs Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), which was concluded in 2010, try to resolve the disagreements that caused Egypt and Sudan to decline to sign the CFA, and use it as a model for a future binding legal regime. Search for jobs related to Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 20m+ jobs. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56(4), 687-702. These two factors could become serious problems. when did construction of the dam begin? International rights organisations have reported that many cases of displacement were not voluntary and that entire communities were driven from their villages. Egypt, which lies 1,600 miles downstream of the Dam, believes its operation will reduce the amount of fresh water available to it from the Nile. Egypts main argument might be that, despite being unsatisfactory and anachronistic, the Nile Waters Treaties remain good law and are enforceable against the respective parties. Rendering of GERDEthiopia is building one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the River Nile near the Sudan border. Water Policy, 16(4), 595-608. In short, the Nile Waters Treaties do little to constrain Ethiopias ability to construct the Dam. 2. Second came the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP) which concerned the Dam specifically (rather than the Nile more broadly). July 26, 2022. Addis Ababa has said the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4bn hydropower project, is crucial to its economic development and to provide power. Since plans for Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) were first announced in 2011, Cairo has viewed the project as a serious threat to the country's water supply. Mainly, for the downstream countries, the. In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. l Coordinates 111255N 3505 . In 2019, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee warned that the Gibe III Dam had already disrupted the seasonal patterns of Lake Turkana and that this would reduce fish life and harm local communities dependent on the Lake. As a result, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has recognised water security as a possible threat to international peace.
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