The $ 5 billion super dam blocks the longest river in the world

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD - Great Ethiopian Renaissance) has been under construction since 2010.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance has a main dam that will be 145m high, 1.7km long, and a secondary dam 4.8km long and 45m high. The reservoir behind it is expected to hold about 74 billion cubic meters of water, which is expected to be as large as London. Filling the water and dams can take anywhere from 5 to 15 years, depending on the hydrological conditions during the filling period and the agreements reached between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

The dam is built from 10 million m3 of roller compacted concrete (RCC), including two power plants, three spillways and one auxiliary dam. Once completed, the project will produce more than 5,000MW of electricity, more than double Ethiopia's current output. Since February 2022, GERD has started to operate turbines in the first phase of electricity generation.

The project is worth nearly $5 billion and once completed, the GERD will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa. However, since its inception until now, this project has become the focus of increasingly fierce controversy among countries in the basin.

While Ethiopia insists that GERD will help Africa flourish, countries in the lower Nile, including Egypt and Sudan, worry that the project will threaten the Nile's water, which is very important in the countries. and the potential consequences leading to dam failure.

Jessica Tanner

Update 27 July 2023