Ethiopia is building a $4.7 billion dam on the Nile called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Egypt believes that it threatens to dry up Egypt’s great Aswan Dam and drastically reduce Egypt’s electricity supply by 30-40% and irrigation capacity. When the 74 billion cubic meter capacity dam in Ethiopia is finished the Aswan dam will not take in water for two years say Egyptian officials.
Egypt is dependent on the Nile River for its agriculture and drinking water. Without the water it would not survive. Egypt therefore, sees the GERD project as an existential threat. Egypt has documented the damage the new dam project would have to the international community.
According to a 1929 treaty, Egypt is to receive 80% of the Nile water supply. Ethiopia says it did not sign the treaty and that it has as many people as Egypt and therefore it has equal rights to the water.
Cairo has abandoned attempts to convince Addis Ababa to compromise.
Egypt is now taking its case to the European Union and to the international donors funding the project, and there has been talk in Cairo about military action, though officials say it is not on the table.
Even as the concrete is being poured, a new entrant into the Egyptian presidential campaign said he would order the use of military force against Ethiopia if construction on the Renaissance dam is not halted.
“Water for Egypt is Egypt’s life,” said Mortada Mansour a lawyer who announced his candidacy recently. “This is vital for us… the issue of water is a life or death issue. This is not up for discussion.”
Water is the next battlefront as global resources continue to be stretched. The Nile River is a very significant water source for a large swath of the world’s population in North Africa. But we can expect more tension over water is other places too.
Jesus said, “there shall be famines” in the last days. Matthew 24:7
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