Ethiopia began generating electricity from its Blue Nile mega-dam on Sunday, marking a significant milestone in the contentious multibillion-dollar project.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured the power plant with high-ranking officials and pressed a series of buttons on an electronic screen, which officials said started production.
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The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is set to be Africa’s largest hydroelectric scheme, but it has been at odds with downstream nations Egypt and Sudan since construction began in 2011.
Sunday’s development was dubbed “the birth of a new era” by Abiy.
“This is great news for our continent and the downstream countries with whom we hope to collaborate,” he said.
Addis Abeba sees the project as critical to the electrification and development of Africa’s second-largest country, but Cairo and Khartoum are concerned that it will jeopardize their access to vital Nile waters.
As he toured the site, Abiy, who was wearing sunglasses and a khaki-colored hat emblazoned with the Ethiopian flag, dismissed those concerns.
“As you can see, this water will generate energy while flowing to Sudan and Egypt, contrary to rumors that the Ethiopian people and government are damming the water to starve Egypt and Sudan,” he said as water rushed through the concrete colossus behind him.
However, Cairo condemned the launch on Sunday, saying Addis Abeba was “persisting in its violations” of a declaration of principles on the project signed by three countries.
The $4.2-billion dam is expected to generate more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity in the end, more than doubling Ethiopia’s current output.
Only one of the 13 turbines, with a total installed capacity of 375 megawatts, is currently operational.
A second will be operational within a few months, according to project manager Kifle Horo, who added that the dam is currently scheduled to be completed in 2024.
The 145-meter-high structure spans the Blue Nile in western Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, near the border with Sudan.
Egypt, which relies on the Nile for nearly all of its irrigation and drinking water, regards the dam as an existential threat.
Sudan hopes the project will help to regulate annual flooding, but it is concerned that if no agreement is reached, its own dams will be harmed without any agreement.
Both have long advocated for a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the massive dam, but African Union-sponsored talks have failed to produce a breakthrough.
According to William Davison, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, the GERD is viewed in Ethiopia as “a symbol of Ethiopia resisting external pressure.”
“Because the government has promoted the idea that foreign actors are attempting to undermine Ethiopia’s sovereignty, I believe this will be interpreted as demonstrating that they are still making progress despite a hostile environment.”
After 15 months of brutal conflict with Tigrayan rebels, Addisu Lashitew of the Brookings Institution in Washington said the GERD’s commissioning was a “rare positive development that can unite a deeply fractured country.
“The newly generated electricity from the GERD could help revive an economy that has been devastated by a deadly war, rising fuel prices, and the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
