Dam
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
The largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa, on the Blue Nile, and the most consequential current transboundary water dispute in the world.
Key facts
- Reservoir capacity
- approximately 74 billion m³
- Generating capacity
- over 5,000 MW
- River
- Blue Nile
- Downstream states
- Sudan and Egypt
Context
The dam does not consume Nile water — hydropower passes water through — but it gives Ethiopia control over the timing of Blue Nile flow, which supplies the great majority of the Nile’s annual volume. The dispute is therefore about filling rates, drought operating rules and the legal status of prior agreements, rather than about total abstraction.
Relationships
- Located in: Ethiopia
Related intelligence
Sources
- Global Water System Project — Global Reservoir and Dam Database. Open — attribution required · CC BY 4.0
- Peer-reviewed scientific literature — Open-access hydrology, water chemistry and water use research. Public but restricted · Publisher terms — public access, reuse not clearly granted
- OpenStreetMap Foundation — OpenStreetMap. Open — attribution required · Open Database Licence (ODbL) 1.0