{"id":4593,"date":"2026-08-21T11:57:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:57:44","slug":"ethiopia-does-not-need-permission-to-develop-its-nile-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/ethiopia-does-not-need-permission-to-develop-its-nile-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia Does Not Need Permission to Develop Its Nile Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AMN Plus-August 21, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia\u2019s Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa says Ethiopia does not need permission from anyone to develop its water resources, while insisting that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is primarily a hydropower project whose benefits extend across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEthiopia is a sovereign country,\u201d Habtamu said. \u201cWho said that we are going to ask them permission? Because we built the GERD without the permission, and we will do it also if we need on other river basins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an Exclusive interview with The Pulse of Africa, Habtamu said the GERD was built solely for electricity generation and argued that its impact goes beyond Ethiopia through regional power exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intention of this dam is purely for hydropower generation,\u201d he said. \u201cThe spillover is also for the region, not only for Ethiopia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Ethiopia has been supplying electricity to neighboring countries including Djibouti, Kenya, and Sudan while demand is also growing from Somalia and South Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kenyans are demanding more than what really we could give them,\u201d Habtamu said. \u201cIf we take from Somalia, there is a big demand, but not yet connected, so we are working on it. In South Sudan, there is a big demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Minister also defended Ethiopia\u2019s approach to Nile Basin cooperation, citing the Nile Basin Initiative and the Cooperative Framework Agreement as examples of efforts to promote shared use of the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Ethiopia has been \u201ctoo generous\u201d in developing the Nile tributaries, adding that, unlike in other trans boundary river basins where downstream countries often lead cooperation efforts, Ethiopia has taken the lead in bringing Nile Basin countries together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn case of Nile, it is the reverse. It is Ethiopia who has been trying to have initiative, let\u2019s cooperate, let\u2019s work together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia has also refrained from developing potentially irrigable land immediately downstream of the GERD, arguing that this demonstrates consideration for downstream countries, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTechnically, below the downstream, we have more than 230,000 hectares of land, irrigable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not doing that because we know there is a demand from downstream side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Habtamu maintained that water released from the GERD continues downstream after electricity generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever released from GERD, after getting it down, after getting the power, is automatically going to our brothers on downstream side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister rejected calls for joint management of the GERD, saying Ethiopia would not accept arrangements that would give other countries control over the dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow comes the dam that has been built by Ethiopians, that has been our proud, and we say, a national pride project, someone who has been opposing the movement, come and say, we will manage together?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is impossible, totally impossible, unthinkable,\u201d Habtamu added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Ethiopia\u2019s position is that Nile Basin countries should negotiate and cooperate rather than seek to restrict Ethiopia\u2019s development of its own water resources, according to Pulse of Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMN Plus-August 21, 2026 Ethiopia\u2019s Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa says Ethiopia does not need permission from anyone to develop its water resources, while insisting that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is primarily a hydropower project whose benefits extend across the region. \u201cEthiopia is a sovereign country,\u201d Habtamu said. \u201cWho said that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-ethiopia","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4597,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions\/4597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amn.gov.et\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}