GERD Reaches Milestone Despite Internal, External Hurdles: Water Experts

April 2/2021/ENA/  The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has reached a milestone despite internal and external challenges, Water experts said.

Since its commencement in April 2011, GERD has been facing setbacks. But the flagship project has withstood them and reached a milepost.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Getu Fana, Executive Board Member of Alliance for GERD in Canada, said the construction passed through difficult stages over the past ten years.

“I am happy that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is now about 80 percent  completed. But the journey was not easy. There were ups and downs in terms of construction,” he noted.

Some of the delays happened because of internal problems caused by the inefficient government organization, Metals and Engineering Corporation, he recalled.

As a result, the prime minister had to identify the bottlenecks and the project afloat.

According to him, the external challenges are equally difficult. Egypt and Sudan, the former in particular, have been working day and night to hinder the development of the dam.

The Government of Egypt has done everything it can, including international diplomacy to block funding of any project in the Nile basin and media campaign to pressure Ethiopia to abandon building the dam, Getu revealed.

“ So passing through all those pressures and reaching about 80 percent of the goal is good. Yet, we still have challenges to overcome to finish the remaining 20 percent of construction of the dam.”

He pointed out that Ethiopians from all walks of life including those in the diaspora community have been supporting this mega project in many ways since the commencement, believing that the completion of the dam would enable to improve the livelihood of Ethiopians.

“Right now the diaspora communities are not only funding GERD, but also telling the truth about the importance of the dam to Ethiopia and the benefits the downstream countries get from it rather than harming them to the international community.”

The expert noted that “similar to Egypt which is saying that the Nile is the life of Egyptians, I think it is also the life for Ethiopians as well. It is also a matter of survival for our country.”

“This project has also united all of us, regardless of political opinion, religion and ethnic origin. All know that it is this mega project which will change the life of Ethiopians in the future,” Getu elaborated.

He urged all Ethiopians to scale up their efforts and intensify all-around support to finalize this grand project.

Water Resources Expert, Fekahmed Negash said there were several hurdles here and there from the very beginning of the construction of GERD.

“The journey over the past 10 years was not smooth. as we wished. It’s full of ups and downs, mainly due to hydro political relationship with dam downstream countries, particularly with Egypt. And also due to internal issues related to constructors, political issues, and  interference of third parties,” he elaborated.

Fekahmed recalled that Ethiopia entered agreement of Declaration of Principles (DoP) in 2015 with the downstream countries with the objective of insuring that all concerns of downstream countries are addressed and they become beneficiaries of the project.

Ethiopia also jointly launched several studies which could not be finalized, mainly due to issues raised by Egypt, the expert said.

There were also negotiations among the three countries on the filling and annual operation of the dam. But again this did not succeed because of manipulation to make the issue that of   water sharing rather than filling of the dam. Ethiopian is not negotiating on water sharing but about filling the dam, he explained.

Applauding the commitment of Ethiopians in supporting the dam over the past ten years, he called on all to redouble their support through purchasing bonds and promoting the national and regional benefits of the project and complete the dam.

The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has now reached 79 percent and  the second filling of the dam is expected to take place this coming rainy season.

Ethiopians have contributed about 14.98 billion Birr for the construction of the dam.