GERD (GRAND ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM)

GERD (GRAND ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM)

  • Recently, Ethiopia has started the second phase of filling a Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’s (GERD) reservoir on the upper Blue Nile, which raised tensions from Sudan and Egypt ahead of an upcoming UN Security Council meeting on the issue.
  • GERD is an acronym for Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is currently under construction on the Abbay River course (Blue Nile), mainly for hydropower generation. GERD will be the largest hydropower plant not only in Ethiopia but also in Africa.
  • Egypt, which has a rapidly growing population nearing 100 million, relies on the Nile for around 90% of its fresh water.
  • GERD is the source of an almost decade-long diplomatic standoff between Ethiopia and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.
  • Egypt accuses Ethiopia of not factoring in the risk of drought conditions such as those that affected the Nile Basin in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
  • It is formerly known as the Millennium Dam and sometimes referred to as Hidase Dam.
  • The primary purpose of the dam is electricity production to relieve Ethiopia’s acute energy shortage and for electricity export to neighboring countries.

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