Ethiopia's dam: blessing or curse for downstream Sudan?

Sudan claims the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam could threaten the safety of some 20 million Sudanese living downstream and damage the country's flood-plain agricultural system. Yet it also sees potential benefits in controlling floods during the rainy season. By Aidan Lewis

  • Chairs are left facing the banks of the Blue Nile river in Khartoum, Sudan, 15 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)
  • A boy plays in the courtyard outside of his home, which is made of mud and bricks, in Omdurman, Sudan, 21 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    Those who live on Tuti Island at the Nile confluence between Omdurman, Khartoum and Bahri fear the giant dam Ethiopia is building close to the border between the two countries could endanger their livelihood
  • Zaki El-Dine, 24, a brick-maker, pours water from the Nile river onto a patch of mud to make bricks on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, 12 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    They worry the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam upstream could weaken the Blue Nile's force, putting at risk an industry that locals say provided bricks for some of Khartoum's first modern public buildings around a century ago
  • Men work in an open-air brick factory at the confluence of the Blue and the White Nile near Khartoum, Sudan (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    At an open-air, riverbank factory where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet in Sudan, Mohamed Ahmed al Ameen and his colleagues mould thousands of bricks every day from mud deposited by summer floods
  • Mohamed Ahmed al Ameen, 55, a brick maker, drinks a cup of tea as he sits on the edge of the Blue Nile near an open-air factory on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, 14 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    "I consider the Nile something I have not parted with since I was born," Ameen said, as workers around him shaped bricks with blistered hands and laid them out to dry in the sun. "I eat from it, I farm with it. And I extract these bricks from it"
  • Mustapha, 60, a brick maker, piles up bricks after removing them from a kiln at an open-air factory on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, 20 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    "I fear that we will not gain any advantage from the dam that Ethiopia is building. I am not an expert but I think the amount of water, as well as mud, will decrease. We usually get the mud when the Nile overflows", said Mustapha
  • Mazeen, (right), aged 12, collects clay in an area known as the 'Potters Village' in Alqamayir, Omdurman, Sudan, 16 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    Potters, farmers and fishermen around the Nile's convergence share similar concerns, though other residents displaced by flooding last summer see benefit in a dam that will regulate the powerful river's waters
  • David Plantino, 35, a potter from South Sudan, listens to the radio as he rests at the pottery factory where he works, near the banks of the Nile River in Omdurman, Sudan, 18 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)
    “I rely on the Nile river as most people around me here for water and the mud,” he said. “Both are the foundation for people who rely on pottery to make a living… I am no expert to tell you what we can expect after the Ethiopian dam, but I can tell you that the difference between the White and the Blue Nile is that the White has no clay”
  • A farmer uses cows to plough a field on Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan, 11 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    On Tuti Island, people are anxious that if the dam saps the river's strength, there will be less water to irrigate and replenish the soil. "I came here in 1988 because the land is the best for agriculture and close enough to supply markets, and you can make a good living" says Mussa Adam Bakr, who farms a plot where vegetable fields back onto citrus and mango groves
  • Manal, who was displaced from her home when the Nile river overflowed in September 2019, sits inside her tent in Wad Ramli, Sudan, 19 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    "With the dam that Ethiopia is building we may be less affected by the floods, which is good but we will also face a lack of water to irrigate our land," said Manal Abdelnaay, who was displaced from her home when the Nile river overflowed in 2019. "Wad Ramli is an area that lives off farming"
  • A high school student reads his lesson notes as he sits by a bank on the Nile river in Alqamayir, Omdurman, Sudan, 15 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    The residents' views are a snapshot of the hopes and fears thrown up along the length of the Nile by the vast hydropower project, which has triggered a high-wire diplomatic stand-off between Ethiopia and Egypt downstream
  • Fishermen wash their catch in the waters of the Nile river in Omdurman, Sudan, 21 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    Ethiopia, which says it is finally asserting its right to harness the Blue Nile's waters to power its economy, began filling the dam in July 2020
  • Tourists sail across the convergence between the White Nile river and Blue Nile river in Khartoum, Sudan, 15 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemr)
    Egypt, which sees a risk to its scarce water supplies, is frantically trying to secure a deal that would guarantee minimum flows from the Blue Nile, the source of about 86% of the waters of the Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean
  • A bird flies over the convergence between the White Nile river and Blue Nile river in Khartoum, Sudan, 17 February 2020 (photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
    Sudan was long overshadowed in the dispute over the dam by its two larger neighbours, but has recently stepped up to broker new negotiations between the three countries. Its citizens will be watching carefully for any changes in the waters they are so dependent upon