[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.