Three African leaders sign an initial deal to end a long-running dispute over the sharing of Nile waters and the building of Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam.

Source: www.bbc.com

85% of the Nile’s water comes from the Blue Nile that originates in the Ethiopian highlands–it is the Blue Nile that Ethiopia has been working on damming since 2011.  The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) will be located near the border with Sudan (see in Google Maps).  Prior to this trilateral agreement, Egypt and Sudan received the majority of the Nile’s waters because of outdated colonial-era treaties that ignored upstream riparian states.  This explains why in the past, Egypt was so adamantly opposed to Ethiopia’s plan fearing that their water supply with be threatened.  Today though, the Egyptian President said, “We have chosen cooperation, and to trust one another for the sake of development.”  

 

Tags: Ethiopia, Africa, supranationalism, political, development, environment, water, energy, borders.

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