ABSTRACT
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia started constructing in 2011, presented major challenges to the notion of existing rights and uses of the Nile waters asserted by Egypt and Sudan since 1959, when the two countries concluded the Nile Waters Agreement. Through an incremental approach based on gaining time, Ethiopia succeeded in making the GERD a reality, bolstered four years later, in 2015, by the signature by the three countries of two instruments: The Declaration of Principles, and the Khartoum Document. The GERD is now poised for completion by the end of 2017, as originally planned, underscoring Ethiopia’s determination and extensive planning and funding. The chapter traces and follows the developments regarding the GERD since 2011, and the escalation of the dispute thereon with Egypt and Sudan, discusses the two instruments, and analyses the new legal order emanating therefrom. It concludes with an examination of the opportunities forgone as a result of the riparians’ unilateral development plans, and those to be gained through cooperation.
