Ethiopia officially inaugurated Africa's largest hydroelectric dam on Tuesday, a project that will provide energy to millions while deepening a rift with downstream Egypt that has unsettled the region. - REUTERS
00:00Ethiopia officially inaugurated Africa's largest hydroelectric dam on Tuesday.
00:07The project, dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, aims to provide energy to millions,
00:14but widens a rift with downstream nations.
00:21At Tuesday's ceremony, Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, addressed what he said were the concerns of those in Sudan and Egypt.
00:28Ethiopia built the Renaissance Dam to prosper and to enlighten the region, never to hurt its brothers.
00:38I would like to confirm to you in front of the Ethiopian people that we will never retain your fair share of the water at any point.
00:46Ethiopia is the continent's second most populous nation with over 120 million people.
00:53And it sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.
00:58Abiy says the dam will boost access to electricity for the almost half of Ethiopians who had none as recently as 2022.
01:06The government says a reservoir the size of Greater London created by the project will provide a steady water supply while limiting floods and drought.
01:14But downstream, neighbors have watched the project advance with dread since construction began in 2011.
01:21Egypt, which built its own Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s, fears the GERD could restrict its water supply.
01:29Cairo has bitterly opposed the dam from the start, arguing that it violates water treaties and poses an existential threat.
01:36Egypt's foreign ministry wrote to the UN Security Council saying the inauguration of the dam violated international law.
01:43War-torn Sudan, meanwhile, has joined Egypt's calls for legally binding agreements on the dam's operation,
01:48but could also benefit from access to cheap energy.
01:53To be continued and RI and much louder by GERD who's a fantastic power supply for the publicćć crisis.
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