Designing the Blue Nile Dam: Between the Hydropolitics of the Nile and an Ethiopian Renaissance

This chapter tackles the question of why the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) bears little resemblance to any previous proposal for a Blue Nile dam over the preceding century. While the GERD occupies one of the sites long identified for a Blue Nile dam, the dam is far larger than any other previously considered anywhere in the basin. This chapter argues that the answer lies in two main factors. First, the antagonistic nature of Nile hydropolitics has meant that dam building—from Egypt’s High Aswan Dam through to Ethiopia’s GERD—has been used to establish control over the river’s waters within national territory and to maximize national benefits while disregarding the interests of other riparians. Second, the GERD’s enormous installed capacity reflects the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front’s over-ambitious, politically driven design process that has shaped the design of most of its dams, albeit on a larger scale.