After outfoxing Egypt on the diplomatic stage for more than a decade, Ethiopia is set to officially inaugurate one of the world's biggest dams on a tributary of the River Nile, burying a colonial-era treaty that saw the UK guarantee the North African nation the lion's share of its water.
The dam - built on the Blue Nile at a cost of about $5bn (£3.7bn), with a reservoir roughly the size of Greater London - has led to a surge in Ethiopian nationalism, uniting a nation often polarised along ethnic lines and mired in conflict.
Ethiopians may disagree on how to eat injera [their staple food], but they agree on the dam, Moses Chrispus Okello, an analyst with the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC.
They do not see it as a pile of concrete in the middle of a river, but as a monument of their achievement because Ethiopians, both at home and in the diaspora, funded the dam's construction. There were waves and waves of appeals for contributions when construction started in 2011.
Named the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), it is Africa's largest hydro-electric plant, raising hopes that not only will it meet the 135 million-strong population's energy needs but it will also give the country 'energy hegemony' and boost its foreign currency earnings, the analyst added.
Ethiopia was planning to increase the sale of electricity to neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Djibouti, with ambitions of building a transmission network to cross the Red Sea to sell to Middle Eastern states like Saudi Arabia.
But for Egypt, the dam represents the opposite of Ethiopia's hopes and ambitions. It fears that the dam could sharply reduce the flow of water to the country, causing severe water shortages.
Egyptian civilization has been built around the Nile, and currently, around 93% of their land is desert. The academic warns that poverty of water could worsen in Egypt because of the dam, storing 64 billion cubic meters of water that usually flows to Egypt—a significant loss considering Egypt's annual share is roughly 55.5 billion cubic meters.
Despite unprecedented diplomatic traction from Egypt, including threats of war, Ethiopia remains steadfast, emphasizing the dam's importance to its developmental goals, which include providing electricity to millions of Ethiopians.
For Ethiopia, the dam signifies a rejection of colonial agreements and a new assertion of sovereignty. As the Gerd nears its inauguration, the Ethiopian leadership has heralded it as a transformative moment, hinting at future ambitions—like regaining access to the Red Sea.
