GERD Will Continue to be Source of Cooperation

BY SOLOMMON DIBABA

Millions of Ethiopians here and in the Diaspora are celebrating the second phase of filling GERD with greater ululations and jubilation. The dream of building a dam on the Blue Nile by King Lalibela and the protection of the catchment area of the River  by Emperor Yohannes IV, the treacherous treaty that the British intended to force Emperor Menelik to sign, The laying of a cornerstone for the dam with a prophetic hope that the future generation will build it on the Blue Nile, culminated in a ground breaking ceremony at Guba by the Late Prime Minister Melese Zenawi, the signing of the DoP by former Prime Minister Hailemarian Desalegen and the acceleration of the construction of the 4 billion USD dam under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed setting a historic timeline leading to the irreversible and decisive second filling of GERD.

Speaking to the media a  couple of days back, Professor Yacob Arsano said “ The second filling of GERD has ushered the highest level of honor, pride, self confidence among the peoples of Ethiopia for the future development and hope for the future prosperity of the country.”

He added that “GERD is a unique and most controversial project surrounded by the conspiracies of the adversaries of this country. GERD is a highly significant project not only for Ethiopia but for Africa and probably for the world.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also said that the GERD will continue to be a source of cooperation for the Nile River Riparian countries, including the downstream states. Ethiopia conducted the filling of the dam in a way that does not significantly harm the downstream countries.

The second filling of GERD completely reversed the international conspiracy against Ethiopia and confirmed once more, the legitimate right of the people and government of Ethiopia to generate hydroelectric power from its own river. In this sense, it has heralded a huge diplomatic and legal victory for Ethiopia at the power corridors of the world and international organizations including the UNSC.

It also earned a socio-psychological victory for the people of Ethiopia by fostering their age old unity amidst local and international conspiracies to dismantle the socio-cultural fabric which united all Ethiopians except local traitors.

Egypt and Sudan tried to stop the construction of GERD by attempting to falsely mobilize the western powers and the Arab countries in the Arab League but failed to stop the construction of GERD. In this sense Ethiopia won because the truth and science is on her side.

GERD taught Ethiopians to be self-reliant in deciding their own fate in internationally accepted laws on the utilization of Trans-boundary Rivers and thus international law prevailed over local conspiracies and outdated colonial unfair and reclusive and exclusive treaties to which Ethiopia was not a party.

For the second time in a row, GERD disqualified the slanderous lies of the Egyptian and Sudanese media which were busy trying to decisive the world by employing the most reckless tactics of media misinformation. They are now forced to swallow all their lies and groundless fabrications. GERD is now a living monument which disproved the fake news fabricated by the adversaries of the country insuring a victory against yellow journalism.  

Furthermore, the second filling of GERD will force Egypt and Sudan to abandon their path of confrontation and cooperate with Ethiopia to ensure a lasting benefit for the two countries.

Dr. Engineer Seleshi Bekele, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy said, “the three countries should cooperate in sharing the benefits of GERD instead of confronting each other on GERD.”

The Minister added that in about three months’ time, the two turbines will start to generate 750 MW of electric power which will be added to the national power gird through power distribution installations already completed.

Over the last ten years and particularly after the startup of the AU coordinated negotiations, Ethiopia continued to stress that GERD will never harm the downstream countries but will indeed help them to have a stable flow of water free from flood. The second filling of GERD immediately proved this and Ethiopia was correct on the stand it exhibited on GERD. A Sudanese official is a witness to this.

 Reporting from Khartoum on the 18^th of July Xinua stated that  -- “A Sudanese official on Sunday said that no drop in the water level of the Blue Nile has been detected despite Ethiopia's start of the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

"Since  April, Al-Daim station on the border with Ethiopia has not monitored any drop in the daily level of the water coming from the Ethiopian Plateau to Sudan," Hamid Mohamed Ali, director of Sudan's Al-Rusaires Dam, said in a statement.

"Although Ethiopia started the second filling of the GERD, yet the daily water amounts are stable," he noted.

But Ali stressed that, despite Ethiopia's start of the second of filling of the GERD, a legal and binding deal should still be signed regarding filling and operating of the dam.”

The construction of GERD has now reached a point of to return and the international media and Egyptian and Sudanese lobbyists should change the way they treat the situation. The respective governments are also expected to promote cooperation by engaging in the ongoing AU led negotiation.

Ethiopia’s stance over the construction of GERD should be commendable by all actors particularly by Egypt and Sudan. The government of Ethiopia has been reiterating for negotiation to address all the concerns of Egypt and Sudan from the inception of the project ten years ago. It has been trying to convince tirelessly all pertinent parties that it has no intention of harming others instead encourage cooperation for mutual benefits of the project.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said following the announcement of the second filling this week that the GERD will continue to be a source of cooperation for the Nile River Riparian countries, including the downstream states. Ethiopia conducted the filling of the dam in a way that does not significantly harm the downstream countries.