Water Security and Hydro-Egoism: Endogenous Hegemony and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Abstract

In 2011, Ethiopia surprised the international community and its two downstream riparian neighbors, Sudan and Egypt, when it unilaterally announced plans to construct the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile tributary. In 2021, this self-financed mega-dam project is now fast coming to completion as Ethiopia begins the second phase of filling the massive reservoir that Sudan and Egypt fear will cause water shortages in their respective countries. This impoundment process is of existential concern to Egypt, which is completely dependent on Nile water and is one of the most water stressed countries in the world. A history of hydro-egoism, exacerbated by imperial politics, colonial treaties, and broader disruptions across the Horn of Africa attach to the riverine cultures of the Nile. This history has problematized the legal concept of water security and has forestalled efforts to establish a Cooperative Framework Agreement to holistically manage this transboundary water resource upon which 430 million people depend. While discussions have tended to concentrate on the problem of hydro-hegemony in historical context, this article introduces the idea of the international law’s endogenous hegemony over the creation of the processual structures, emerging courses of dealing, and multi-basin wide practices that already have established the pathway forward toward the transboundary management of this critical resource.