Modernization, State-Building, and the Hydraulic Mission in Imperial and Revolutionary Ethiopia

This chapter examines Ethiopia’s dam-building ambitions during the Imperial era and under the military-Marxist Derg regime. The chapter examines why the two regimes’ common ambition of building dams to expand the reach of the state and transform the economy led to a pattern of dam construction dominated by Ethiopia’s least advantageous river basins, while the river basins with the most hydroelectric potential—including the Blue Nile—remained relatively untapped until after the fall of the Derg. Although Haile Selassie’s government and the Derg were inspired by sharply divergent ideologies, they shared a common desire to modernize Ethiopia, with water infrastructure playing a central symbolic and material role. Yet, both regimes faced similar technological, and international and domestic political economy constraints that limited dam building to comparatively low potential sites and, particularly, prevented exploitation of the river with the greatest hydropower potential—the Blue Nile.