GERD Benefits

What are the benefits of GERD to Ethiopia?

• Increased electricity generation capacity to meet industrial and domestic energy demands.
• Expanded economic activities in the fishery, recreation and tourism sectors enhancing better employment opportunities.
• Accelerated structural transformation of Ethiopia’s economy, thereby reducing people living in extreme poverty.
• Enhanced opportunities for economic integration.
• Improved electric energy access to Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, and Somalia.
• Enhanced foreign currency earnings through the export of electricity.

What are the benefits of the GERD to Nile Basin countries?

• Access to reliable and more economical power supply.
• Opportunity for better flood and erosion control.
• Prospect of a new era for common ties and renewed spirit of cooperation.
• Maintenance of instream flow needs to support aquatic life.
• Promotion of green economic development.
• Possibility for increased mutual benefits, and sets a precedent for future basin-scale projects.
• Opportunity for cultivating mutual trust and embarking on water trading.

How does the GERD benefit Sudan?

• Reduces dredging and infrastructure maintenance costs.
• Prolongs lifetime of the dams downstream.
• Improves capacity of the underperforming hydropower schemes.
• Reduces the amount of water lost due to evaporation.
• Provides sustainable and regulated flow of water stored in the Ethiopian highlands where evaporation is much less than in the lowlands of downstream.
• Enhances agricultural production.
• Reduces seasonal flooding of the plains surrounding the reservoir of the Roseires.
• Mitigates drought and flood.

How does the GERD benefit Egypt?

• Reduces dredging and infrastructure maintenance costs.
• Prolongs lifetime of the dams.
• Improves capacity of the underperforming hydropower schemes.
• Enhances conservation of water by reducing water loss at High Aswan Dam.
• Lowers the Nile water lost at the HAD for evaporation.
• Provides sustainable and regulated flow of water stored in the Ethiopian highlands where evaporation is much less than in the lowlands of downstream.
• Enhances agricultural production.
• Mitigates drought and flood.
• Promotes the possibility for maximising mutual benefits whereby countries could compliment each other in order to make the most efficient use of the Nile water resources.

How can electrification through GERD play a role in reversing/curtailing deforestation and climate change in the region?

• Reduces the extent fuel woods are cut and used for daily cooking and heating.
• Shifts the economy from a traditional agriculture to a modern industry which doesn’t require more land rather improved technology.
• Provides an artificial reservoir that will become a source of moisture in the hydrological cycle hence improving the regional climate.