Ethiopia s hydro-hegemony has arrived | American Enterprise Institute aei.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aei.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ethiopia s Hydro-Hegemony Has Arrived
The dam dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt most often garners international press, but the cases impacting Kenya and Somalia show that the pattern of Ethiopian defiance of international norms cuts deeper.
After initial denials, Ethiopia began last summer to fill its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The Ethiopian project is already four times longer than the Hoover Dam and will become the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa. When filled, its reservoir will have more than twice the volume of Lake Mead. The Ethiopian government justifies the project in power generation and the country’s development. The fact that the dam lies less than ten miles from the Sudanese border and blocks waters upon which both Sudan and Egypt rely for agriculture makes the dam’s construction an international issue.