Ethiopia bans flights above Grand Renaissance Dam constructed over Nile river

In a recent development,  the head of civil aviation authority, Ethiopia has said on Monday, October 5 that it banned all flights over a gigantic hydropower dam which is being built on the Blue Nile River for security reasons. According to the international media reports, the Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said that the dam would produce power within the next 12 months. 
As per reports, the new move might affect Ethiopia's ongoing dispute with Egypt and Sudan over its $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, with Cairo threatening to cut off the main supply of water.

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Dam to generate power

The director-general of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, Wesenyeleh Hunegnaw reportedly said that all the flight movements have been banned to secure the dam. In addition to this, he declined to give any additional details on the reasons behind the move, which could worsen the long-running dispute. Giving a speech to the Parliament, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde reportedly said that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam this year will generate power with the two turbines and further added that a second filling of the giant hydropower dam is under construction and will be completed by next year. 

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Addressing a virtual meeting, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the UN last month that the country has no such intentions to harm Sudan and Egypt with the dam just days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi raised concerns over the project. 

According to the researchgate reports, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has attracted significant attention from both the scientific and political communities due to its strong socio-economic and geo-political importance. There is great interest related to the project whereby a  simple google search using keywords “GERD” and “Ethiopia” for example results in over 3 million hits (on 24th June 2020) in a space of under one minute. 

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But,  it is more probable that the GERD will collapse, and this would risk flooding the capital city of Sudan and the White Nile River,  covering a  total area of  667,228  km2. Given the fact that these conclusions signal a catastrophic disaster for the region and the significant stakes involved in the current state of regional hydro politics, a group of interdisciplinary researchers covering the fields of geology, climatology, geomorphology, hydrology, dam engineering, and land use planning and modelling took an initiative to investigate the scientific validity of the research methodology and the robustness of its findings and conclusions. 

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Image: AP