Ethiopia opens Africa’s largest dam amid Egyptian protest
The project is set to provide energy to millions in the region but is seen by Cairo as an existential threat that endangers its water supply
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.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second most populous nation with over 120 million people, sees the US$5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.
The dam’s output has gradually increased since the first turbine was turned on in 2022, and it reached its maximum 5,150MW of power on Tuesday. That puts it among the 20 biggest hydroelectric dams in the world, at about one-quarter of the capacity of China’s Three Gorges Dam.
At a ceremony on Tuesday at the site in Guba, an Ethiopian fighter plane flew low over the mist from the dam’s white waters, which plunge 170 metres (558 feet).
Beneath the canopy of a giant Ethiopian flag, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addressed a crowd of dignitaries including the presidents of Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya.