The Ethiopian Herald and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Retrospective perspective

Reading Time: 2 minutes

BY NAOL GIRMA

T he Ethiopian Herald published numerous reports and articles about Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) during the past 12th years. This writing highlights major works of the paper about GERD focusing the dam’s pivotal role in advancing Ethiopia’s economic and social development.

The paper strived to present Ethiopia’s attempt to ensure transparency and mutuality throughout the process. “GERD benefits all African brothers and sisters. Ethiopia does not want to harm anyone. The country’s goal is to use the power for its large population that has never seen electricity and alleviate poverty” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

“GERD is a people’s project and a humble attempt to realize our development needs. It’s the fingerprints of Ethiopia’s farmers, pastoralists, daily laborers, students, business owners, and the diaspora around the world who eke out a living in extremely difficult circumstances.”(Dr. Engineer Sileshi Bekele)

The talks “would be much about how to regulate water over the years to the downstream countries, particularly Sudan and Egypt, as well as about soil and water conservation activities so that the dam could retain huge volume of water, avoid evaporation losses and anything that has to do with a sustained water use among the three countries,” Assistant Professor Samuel Tefera

“The downstream countries Egypt and Sudan should have been happy that Ethiopia is building GERD with water storage of 74 billion BCM. This is because eastern basin countries desperately need more big dams that retain a total of 125 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) of water in the next 40 years in order to combat climate change” (Florida Water and Climate Alliance Chair and Hydrologist, Tirusew Asefa (PhD)

“In any transboundary rivers, the recent legal or politically accepted principle is to use the common river water resource in an equitable and reasonable manner without causing significant harm either in down or upstream countries. Professor of Hydrology at the Addis Ababa University in the areas of water resources and environmental engineering” Professor Yilma Seleshi Hydrologist (Water Engineer)

“GERD will highly stimulate the overall economy of the country by covering the power supply gap and increasing power export earnings which will eventually make Ethiopia a geopolitical power in Africa” Hawassa University Water Supply and Environmental Engineering lecturer Mihret Dananto

“Climate change has impacted all paces of life all over the world. GERD, as a renewable energy mechanism, will make Ethiopia a major contributor to global carbon mitigation efforts. Realizing GERD will also enable many (60-70 percent) Ethiopians accessible to clean energy and contribute to the reduction in carbon emissions from deforestation for firewood purposes” Yalemzewd Nigussie

 THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 8 APRIL 2023

Recommended For You