Geographical Magazine: a new dam in Ethiopia
Reading the latest stories from the Geographical magazine, I aptly came across an article discussing the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Blue Nile. Although the article does not discuss the Awash River Basin specifically, the author raises some important points that hold true for my previous post about the ability of hard options to meet Ethiopia's freshwater needs.
1. Hard options, specifically dams, have the potential to cause significant problems that are hard to solve.
GERD is an ambitious infrastructure project and will be Africa's largest hydropower dam once complete next year. However, GERD is predicted to cause an array of consequences for not only basin communities, through the displacement of 22,000 people, but also for Egypt; GERD could significantly alter downstream water supplies in Egypt, causing current viable agricultural land to decline by potentially 50 percent! Unsurprisingly, there are marked tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia, demonstrating the politics and difficulty managing trans-boundary water resources. Issues emerge over water rights and equity, specifically which country should have greater access and whether equal access can even be attained.
2. Hard options may be entwined in national identify, complicating the ability to solve the problems they cause.
GERD is expected to cost Ethiopia $4.8 billion, but importantly the money has been raised domestically, mostly funded through bonds and taxpayers. The dam holds important economic and symbolic importance: some argue it has become ravelled in national identity and pride. When GERD represents such Ethiopian identity, it becomes even harder to solve and manage problems related to its impact on downstream water use because of the fulfilment GERD many generate once it's completed.
GERD helps demonstrate that hard options are large-scale developments that require substantial amounts of political will; they can be used to demonstrate the government's commitment to meeting Ethiopia's development needs. Their construction, however, is often at the expense of communities, nationally and internationally, and therefore, it can be denied that hard options exhibit such altruism. The construction of hard options may be easy to conduct through using the current centralised powers. However, if Ethiopia really wants to improve freshwater availability in a sustainable manner, the country must work out of its comfort zone... A timely introduction to soft option water management!
1. Hard options, specifically dams, have the potential to cause significant problems that are hard to solve.
GERD is an ambitious infrastructure project and will be Africa's largest hydropower dam once complete next year. However, GERD is predicted to cause an array of consequences for not only basin communities, through the displacement of 22,000 people, but also for Egypt; GERD could significantly alter downstream water supplies in Egypt, causing current viable agricultural land to decline by potentially 50 percent! Unsurprisingly, there are marked tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia, demonstrating the politics and difficulty managing trans-boundary water resources. Issues emerge over water rights and equity, specifically which country should have greater access and whether equal access can even be attained.
2. Hard options may be entwined in national identify, complicating the ability to solve the problems they cause.
GERD is expected to cost Ethiopia $4.8 billion, but importantly the money has been raised domestically, mostly funded through bonds and taxpayers. The dam holds important economic and symbolic importance: some argue it has become ravelled in national identity and pride. When GERD represents such Ethiopian identity, it becomes even harder to solve and manage problems related to its impact on downstream water use because of the fulfilment GERD many generate once it's completed.
GERD helps demonstrate that hard options are large-scale developments that require substantial amounts of political will; they can be used to demonstrate the government's commitment to meeting Ethiopia's development needs. Their construction, however, is often at the expense of communities, nationally and internationally, and therefore, it can be denied that hard options exhibit such altruism. The construction of hard options may be easy to conduct through using the current centralised powers. However, if Ethiopia really wants to improve freshwater availability in a sustainable manner, the country must work out of its comfort zone... A timely introduction to soft option water management!
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| Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam |
Hi Ruth! Nice post, once again!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that if Ethiopia really wants to improve freshwater availability they need a timely introduction to soft option water management. It's an interesting point you've made about national identity... I think that this may be rather hard to combat. As you have said, it will become harder to solve and manage problems relating to its impact on downstream water use. Do you think that there is any way that this could be overcome? If so, what way do you think might be best here?
Hi Bailey - thanks again! Such a good question and a really hard one to answer... as you know, development of a country is often nuanced in westernised metrics and terms (e.g. GDP, GNP...). A dam is an easy way to help achieve these economic gains. This is why I think the dam holds such strong national identity - it enables Ethiopians to demonstrate how their country is 'developing', or becoming on par with the West. Therefore, I think that development of a country needs to be reframed in terms that are more place appropriate i.e. the West's way isn't the best! Of course this is easier said than done.
DeleteWhat do you think?
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DeleteYes, I agree with that. I think it is such a difficult situation to overcome so, really, the only option is re-evaluating development in terms that are more place appropriate. Interesting point you have made about becoming on par with the West. It is a very interesting way to view things and I think this definitely has an impact too with regards to an increase in national identity. This will be a very difficult and time-consuming process and will require the collaboration of many people with conflicting ideas and theories. However, hopefully, this will be overcome in the future.
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