By Addis Getachew
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
As a huge dam on the River Nile in Ethiopia nears completion Anadolu Agency has spoken to engineers and journalists who claim fellow Nile state Egypt remains suspicious of the multibillion-dollar project.
Guba – more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) northwest of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa – will be home to the enormous $4.8 billion Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD).
It is situated on the Nile where the wide river, mixed thickly with earth, rumbles towards Sudan through the dam’s gate, joining its natural course to flow across the nearby Sudanese border.
However, pervasive thinking in Egypt about the Ethiopian dam is that it could choke Egyptians of their water lifeline.
During a recent media event at GERD, Egyptian journalist Haitham El-Tabei told Anadolu Agency there was fear in Egyptian society about Ethiopia using the Nile.
“[Imagine] there is a football team that is very strong and all other teams fear to play it – but they have never played against it or even see it playing.
“Will the people feel they are ready to play with it or not? No, because they are hearing from everybody that: ‘They are very strong, they will defeat us.’ This is GERD,’” Haitham said.
Asked what could be done to dissipate this fear, he said: “My suggestion is to have visits, real visits, by Egyptians [to Ethiopia]. And really explain … to Egyptians that ‘Your brothers in Ethiopia need development.’”
Asked now that he saw it for himself what he would be writing when he got back to Egypt, Haitham said: “I will be writing that it is a possible cooperation opportunity that we do not want to waste. But at the same time Ethiopia must be very well committed [to] using it responsibly for the people in Egypt and not against it.”
This need for cooperation featured prominently during the five-day Eastern Nile Media tour of the GERD site last week, featuring more than 20 journalists from Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
-Unstoppable river-
GERD Project Manager Simegnew Bekele said the dam was purely a hydro-electric scheme which “cannot stop” the natural flow of the Nile.
According to Simegnew, Ethiopia has been transparent about the dam, adding that a team of technical experts drawn from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on the recommendation of Addis Ababa was following up the process.
“You cannot stop the flow of a river like that,” he said. “Furthermore, it has never been and will never be the intention of Ethiopians to do so.”
However, Egyptians remain uneasy.
Another Egyptian journalist, Manal Agrama, told Anadolu Agency: “What most people in Egypt think is: ‘The dam will cut the water flow’.”
“I would be writing to change that sort of thinking as I have been doing for quite some time now. But you Ethiopian journalists should also put pressure on your government to be more transparent,” she said.
-Strategy needed-
According to Kevin Wheeler, an Oxford University doctoral candidate who privately studied the impact of the Nile, the dam has many advantages for downstream countries but they “have to coordinate” a filling strategy.
Wheeler recommended two strategies: to allow a constant amount of water both during dry and wet seasons to flow out during the filling period, or to allow more water to be let off during the wet season and to retain more during dry ones until the catchment is filled over an agreed period of time.
This remains just a suggestion and it is not clear if the international consultants selected to study the impact of the dam on downstream countries, Artelia and BRL, will come up with recommendations similar to these.
One thing is apparent though: although it is a sure thing that Ethiopia’s hydro dam will be operational soon, the next talking point will be on the water-filling strategy.
GERD is designed to form an artificial reservoir, which is twice the size of the widest lake in Ethiopia – Lake Tana in the northwest. The GERD lake will contain 70 billion cubic meters of water.
Simegnew said GERD is the largest hydro dam project under construction on the face of the earth.
One Sudanese reporter, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Anadolu Agency: "What else should alarm Egyptians who, for ages, have been told and believed that Egypt was 'the bride of the Nile?'
“It is high time Egyptians shook the myth off their backs and see the realities of other nations that share the river and their needs to develop.
"The Nile is a shared resource, and should be shared as such in a manner that respects the 'no-significant-harm' principle that appears in a much broader Declaration of Principles the leaders of the three countries signed in 2014 in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea."
