ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 21 – Ethiopia does not need permission to develop its water resources, Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa said, as the country defended its right to build dams and use its rivers for development.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Habtamu said Ethiopia is a sovereign country and would continue developing its water resources when needed. He pointed to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), saying it was built without seeking permission from other countries.
The minister said the GERD was built mainly to generate electricity and is already supplying hydropower to the region. He rejected calls for joint management of the dam, saying Ethiopia would not accept any arrangement that gives other countries control over a facility built by Ethiopians.
Ethiopia’s position is that countries sharing the Nile should negotiate and cooperate instead of trying to restrict its development of its own water resources.
According to Habtamu, the GERD is intended to provide electricity to Ethiopians while also supporting regional power needs through energy exports. Ethiopia currently supplies electricity to Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan, while Somalia and South Sudan have also expressed interest in receiving power.
He said Kenya is asking for more electricity than Ethiopia can currently provide, while work is ongoing to connect Somalia to the power supply. South Sudan has also requested electricity, he added.
Meanwhile, Habtamu defended Ethiopia’s role in Nile Basin cooperation, pointing to the Nile Basin Initiative and the Cooperative Framework Agreement as efforts aimed at encouraging countries to share and manage the river’s resources.
He also said Ethiopia has limited the development of some irrigable land to consider the needs of downstream countries. Ethiopia has more than 230,000 hectares of technically irrigable land, he said, but has chosen not to irrigate the land because of concerns about demand from downstream countries.
The minister added that water released from the GERD continues to flow to downstream countries after electricity is generated.
