Ethiopia opens Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, sparking renewed Nile River row

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), built at a cost of $5 billion, sits on the Blue Nile in the Benishangul-Gumuz region near the Sudanese border. With a generation capacity of 5,150 megawatts, the project is expected to more than double Ethiopia’s electricity output, providing a vital boost for one of Africa’s fastest-growing but energy-poor economies.

For Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation with more than 120 million people, the GERD is a symbol of national pride and economic transformation. The government says the dam will power homes, factories, and infrastructure projects, creating new opportunities for development and export of electricity to neighboring states.

But the project has also heightened tensions with Egypt and Sudan, who depend heavily on Nile waters for drinking, farming, and industry. Cairo has long feared that the dam will reduce its share of the river, which supplies more than 90% of Egypt’s freshwater. Sudan, too, has expressed concern about how water flows and dam operations might affect its irrigation systems and existing dams.

Ethiopia has dismissed these fears, arguing that the project will benefit the region by regulating floods and expanding power supply. Officials insist that GERD will not significantly harm downstream countries, pointing instead to its role in stabilizing water flows during drought years.

The dispute also touches on history. By moving forward with GERD, Ethiopia is sidestepping the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, a colonial-era pact that gave Egypt veto power over Nile projects and granted it the lion’s share of water rights. Addis Ababa has long rejected the treaty as outdated and unjust.

Talks between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have repeatedly stalled, and analysts warn that the absence of a binding agreement could fuel further tensions in an already fragile region.