Abiy Ahmed Requests Ramaphosa To Intervene Into Ethiopia's Dam Project Dispute With Egypt

In his state visit to South Africa on January 12, 2020, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed requested his host President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene into an ongoing dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt, over Ethiopia's gigantic $4.6 billion hydro-electric dam project on the Blue Nile River. That was reported by some media.

The dispute is mainly about the the time it should take to fill the dam after it's completion. Egypt wants Ethiopia to fill it in 21 years, while Ethiopia plans to do that in 12 years. Egypt argues filling the dam in 12 years will adversely affect its water supply needs for human consumption and irrigation. But Ethiopia does not buy into that, saying the gigantic hydro-electric dam said to be the largest in Africa, is vital for its rapidly growing economy. The gigantic dam called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam alias GERD is now 70% completed.

Already talks between Ethiopia and Egypt aimed at resolving the dispute peacefully have been going on, but so far fruitless.

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