Egyptian concerns grow amid Ethiopia’s plan to build dozens of dams
Ethiopia announced a plan to build dozens of additional dams at a time when tensions with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam are on the rise due to failure to agree on filling and operating the dam.
Egypt has recently criticized the statements of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed regarding a plan to build dozens of additional dams in different parts of Ethiopia.
The statements come at a time when tensions are on the rise between Egypt and Ethiopia, in addition to Sudan, over a huge hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River. Egypt and Sudan fear their water share might be affected by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), while Ethiopia claims the project is important for its development.
In a May 30 speech at the inauguration of the first stage of an expressway project in Ethiopia, Ahmed said that his country will build more than 100 small and middle-sized dams across different parts of the country during the new fiscal year.
He noted that joint work is the only way to resist any forces opposing Ethiopia, without naming these forces.
