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2020-07-27 Africa North
"The Nile Is Ours!" Ethiopia Tweet Outrages Egypt As Giant Upstream Dam Being Filled In
[ZH] A week ago Ethiopia took the hugely controversial step of initiating filling the reservoir behind the 'Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam', further enraging Egypt which says the project will devastate its economy, farming, and ecosystem bound up with the Nile River downstream.

Ethiopia days ago added further fuel to the fire when the country's foreign minister tweeted in the national language, Amharic, that "The Nile is Ours".

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew's tweet read as follows: "Congratulations! It was the Nile River and the river became a lake. It will no longer flow into the river. Ethiopia will have all the development it wants from it. In fact the Nile is ours!"

International reports suggest the Ethiopians plan to fill the dam's reservoir within a period of three years.

Once the effects of the dam are felt by the Egyptian population, which some analysts fear could lead to famine given the central importance a healthfully flowing Nile plays to to Egyptian agriculture, Cairo will be pressured to possibly take military action. Andargachew's tweet has certainly intensified the standoff.

Needless to say, the Nile has been Egypt's lifeline for thousands of years and the largely desert climate country's greatest natural resource.

It is estimated that some 85 percent of the water reaching Egypt comes via the Blue Nile tributary. But this is precisely where Ethiopia has constructed its massive dam.

The dam is an officially funded project of the Ethiopian government.
Posted by Frank G 2020-07-27 09:07|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 1,780 meter long (5,840 ft) Main Dam, with a 5,200 meter (3 mile) 'Saddle Dam', incorporating 16 400-megawatt generating units for a combined output of 16,153 GWh per year.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2020-07-27 09:40||   2020-07-27 09:40|| Front Page Top

#2 Looks like Egypt will get some real world experience with this generation's military leadership in Libya that can be applied to the south. Don't screw the first one up otherwise it will have significant implications in the second.
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-07-27 09:56||   2020-07-27 09:56|| Front Page Top

#3 Somehow I don't think Ethiopia is going to win this one.
Posted by gorb 2020-07-27 11:40||   2020-07-27 11:40|| Front Page Top

#4 Where's the State Department on this one? They love meddling in situations like this and making them worse.
Posted by Maggie Poodle6767 2020-07-27 12:13||   2020-07-27 12:13|| Front Page Top

#5 They've been building this massive dam since 2011. Surprised nobody downstream took notice until now.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2020-07-27 12:54||   2020-07-27 12:54|| Front Page Top

#6 I suppose it depends if they want to divert it for agriculture or delay it for power.
Posted by gorb 2020-07-27 13:11||   2020-07-27 13:11|| Front Page Top

#7  They've been building this massive dam since 2011. Surprised nobody downstream took notice until now.

Egypt has been negotiating for years without the successful outcome they desire. Al Ahram has had numerous articles about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis, which headlines shorten to GERD.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-07-27 14:15||   2020-07-27 14:15|| Front Page Top

#8 Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)? ;)
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-07-27 15:22||   2020-07-27 15:22|| Front Page Top

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