The Grand Renaissance Dam ...

The Grand Renaissance Dam would benefit Ethiopia and the downstream countries (d/s) in many aspects. Since it is intended for hydropower production, there will be no consumptive use of water, only the natural flow in the river is regulated and released downstream through the turbines and also through spillways during high flows. Rather it provides advantages of reducing evaporation loss (evaporation loss from the reservoir at the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia is much lower than the loss at the Aswan high dam in Egypt). It also provides additional advantage of regulated releases for irrigation and flood protection purposes for immediate d/s country, Sudan. The other most important advantage of the Grand Renaissance Dam for Egypt is in trapping of sediments from Ethiopian highlands which helps to increase the life span of the Aswan reservoir (Lake Naser). Ethiopia may have a plan to export the hydropower energy produced from the project and hence the d/s countries can also be immediate beneficiaries from the regional power market. However, in the contrary to the positive impacts, no water professional can deny some degrees of negative environmental and social impacts due to any water resources development projects which need to be mitigated to boost the sustainability and profitability of the project. Therefore, close cooperation and dialogue is indispensable between Ethiopia and the d/S raparian countries for mutual benefits through development of decision support tools which helps for optimal and environmentally friendly operation management of the reservoir. So water resources projects can bring regional development and integration if there is a will and capacity to share equitably and to manage it properly.