Title

  • The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: How a Cross-Border Project Violates Treaty Obligations and the Inherent Rights of Neighboring States’ Citizens

Creator

Published In

Date

  • 2024

Volume

  • 41

Issue

  • 4

Bibliographic Citation

  • William G. Krentz, The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: How a Cross-Border Project Violates Treaty Obligations and the Inherent Rights of Neighboring States’ Citizens, 41 Wis. Int'l L.J. 677 (2024).

DOI

Abstract

  • The waters of the Nile River offer salvation amid the deserts of Northeast Africa, as well as competition and division between the rival states that share its basin. Ethiopia is nearing completion on the building and filling of the massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam at the source of the Blue Nile in the Ethiopian highlands. The downstream states of Egypt and Sudan believe that the building of this dam jeopardizes their Nile water allocations and violates colonial-era treaties. Interpretation of three of these colonial-era water-sharing treaties lies at the center of the debates. Egypt and Sudan must recognize that treaties not signed by Ethiopia cannot be extrapolated as binding upon it, while Ethiopia must recognize that the one of the three treaties it did sign is still binding. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam offers revolutionary energy and economic production, not only for Ethiopia, but also for the entire region. However, the three states must respect the historical rights of their neighbors’ peoples to the Nile’s waters. They must learn from other successful interstate water and energy sharing deals to actually seize the production in a cooperative way that betters the lives of all three states’ citizens.

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