{"id":117533,"date":"2025-07-04T06:03:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/04\/ethiopia-has-finished-building-mega-dam-on-nile-pm-says\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T06:03:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:03:49","slug":"ethiopia-has-finished-building-mega-dam-on-nile-pm-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/ethiopia-has-finished-building-mega-dam-on-nile-pm-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia has finished building mega-dam on Nile, PM says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia says it has completed building a mega-dam on the Blue Nile that has long been a source of tension with Egypt and Sudan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Launched in 2011 with a $4bn (\u00a32.9bn) budget, the dam is Africa\u2019s biggest hydro-electric plant, and a major source of pride for Ethiopians.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia sees the dam as vital to meeting its energy needs but Egypt and Sudan see it as threatening their water supply from the Nile.<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing the completion of the project, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sought to reassure his neighbours. \u201cTo our neighbours downstream \u2013 Egypt and Sudan \u2013 our message is clear: the Renaissance Dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump said in 2020 that Egypt had threatened to \u201cblow up\u201d the dam \u2013 officially known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd).<\/p>\n

In a conciliatory move, Abiy said that both Egypt and Sudan would be invited to its official inauguration in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sudan\u2019s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met earlier this week and \u201cstressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile Basin\u201d, AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n

More than a mile long and 145m high, the dam is on the Blue Nile tributary in the northern Ethiopia highlands, from where 85% of the Nile\u2019s waters flow.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia wants the dam to produce desperately needed electricity, as the majority of its population \u2013 about 60% \u2013 have no supply.<\/p>\n

Egypt relies on the River Nile for nearly all of its fresh water, and fears that the flow of water could be disrupted.<\/p>\n

It has argued that just a 2% reduction in the amount of water it gets from the Nile could result in the loss of 200,000 acres of irrigated land.<\/p>\n

Sudan is also heavily reliant on water from the Nile, and shares Egypt\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

Abiy said Ethiopia was \u201cwilling to engage constructively\u201d with the two countries.<\/p>\n

However, previous talks have failed to resolve differences.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia says it has completed building a mega-dam on the Blue Nile that has long been a source of tension with Egypt and Sudan. Launched in 2011 with a $4bn (\u00a32.9bn) budget, the dam is Africa\u2019s biggest hydro-electric plant, and a major source of pride for Ethiopians. Ethiopia sees the dam as vital to meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}