Ethiopia and Egypt Meeting to Resolve Fate of 5,000-Megawatt Millennium Hydropower Dam

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A panel is scheduled to begin meeting in the middle of this month with representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, and international water experts to assess the impacts of Ethiopia's planned $4.7 billion Grand Millennium hydropower and irrigation dam on the Nile River.

Egypt's former Minister of Water and Irrigation, Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, has said building the dam would cause a water shortage in Egypt. The dam would result in cuts in electrical power, a reduction in agricultural land and water shortages across major cities in Egypt, he said, referring to a previous study of the project.

This follows reports by Ethiopian officials that the depth of the dam would be increased to 150 meters from the originally planned 90 meters, to boost power production and use water pooling behind the dam to irrigate more than 500,000 hectares of new agricultural land.

This negative assessment has brought very strong reactions from Ethiopian officials, who claim that the dam is a win-win for all countries concerned. Egypt and Sudan are the most dependent on water from the river, as they have no secondary sources and very low annual rainfall. Under agreements that date back to a 1929 British colonial treaty, Egypt receives 55 billion cubic meters and Sudan receives 18.5 billion cubic meters annually. These agreements have caused long running contention, as upstream countries say Egypt and Sudan have been given favorable water distribution and a veto on projects deemed harmful to their national interests.

After deadlock following the formation of the Nile Basin initiative in 1999, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed their own Entebbe agreement to allow projects to go ahead if they did not affect the water flow significantly. Egypt called this agreement a national security threat.

The fate of the project could come down to funding, as Ethiopia has started issuing bonds to finance the project, and Egypt may lobby the World Bank and donors to withdraw funding.

The cornerstone for the 5,000-megawatt (MW) hydropower dam was laid in March 2011. In June 2011, Ethiopia announced that it would construct four additional dams in conjunction with the main project to generate a total of 15,000 MW, making the country a regional power provider. Ethiopia has more than 20 dams currently operating or under construction.

For related information see February 10, 2011, article - Ethiopia Launches 6,000 Megawatt Hydropower 'Project X' and July 12, 2011, article - Ethiopia to Export Power from Nile Hydropower.

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