[gentle music] [Scott Tinker] One billion people live in Africa, less than half of them have electricity.

Most of that comes from hydroelectric dams.

Many African nations have large river systems, and so, like many countries have done in Europe and the Americas, they began their energy development by building dams.

This started in the late 1950s, continues to this day, and will continue into the future, since Africa has only begun to tap its vast hydro potential.

To understand the benefits and challenges of building these new projects, I went to see the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa's newest and biggest.

The issues they're managing here will be the same ones other countries navigate as they develop hydropower.

[upbeat music] [energetic music] There are nearly three billion people today who still live with little or no energy.

And what I want to know is how they'll finally get it.

So this is sort of what it was, and that's the future.

- That's the future.

[both chuckling] - I'm Scott Tinker and I study energy.

Come with me around the world to meet people and communities as they Switch On.

[energetic music] [airplane ambience] Kifle Horo is an engineer working for Ethiopia Electric Power on this and other dams for 30 years.

Kifle, hi.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- It's great to be here.

- Pleasure to meet you here also, to welcome you.

- Thank you.

He's now the manager of this entire project.

[gentle music] Kifle, this is unbelievable.

- Yeah, it's a big job.

- I mean, this wall just goes forever.

You can hardly see the other end.

- Yeah.

It's nearly 5.2 kilometers, maybe 3.6, 3.8 miles.

[Scott] Miles.

And this is not the main dam.

- This is not the main dam.

It's the second dam.

- The long one, but not the.

- The long one, not the tall one.

- Right.

Wow... that's massive.

- That's massive work, yeah.

- How tall is this wall that we're looking at?

- It's around 150 to 170 meters.

- Hundred and seventy meters.

That's a 50 story building.

It's just-- just crazy the scale.

This area we're looking at here, this is upstream.

- Upstream of the dam.

- When you start to fill, everything here will be, - will be underwater.

- Underwater.

- Underwater.

And how high up this wall will the water come?

- It can reach up to the 643 when it's at maximum.

- So almost up to the top of this wall.

- Up to the top of this wall.

- So we're at the top of the spillway.

- Gate to the spillway will be automatically controlled.

- Okay.

- Depending on the inflow.

[workers chatter] [Scott] This is called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance.

Why renaissance, what does that mean?

- Ethiopia was great some centuries ago.

That's why we call it a renaissance.

Coming back to our greatness.

So we have two powerhouses.

[Scott] Right.

- We have 10 units here and six unit there.

- Okay.

- The total intended capacity is around 6.3 gigawatt.

- So that's six or seven nuclear reactors.

- Exactly.

- It's a big... - Massive.

- It's a big plan.

[Scott] Why is Ethiopia building this dam?

Because like most African countries, its energy demands are rising and that's because its cities and industry are growing.

Ethiopia's capital, Addis Abeba, looks like any big U.S. city.

In fact, it has a bigger population than all of them except New York.

But this is not unique to Ethiopia.

In countries across Africa, cities are growing.

Across Latin America and especially across developing Asia, it's happening too.

A hundred and fifty million people move to cities each year.

Almost half the people in the developing world already live in urban centers.

By 2050, it'll be closer to 70%.

The future of the developing world is urban.

Meeting the huge energy demands of these densely populated urban centers, will be a great challenge.

And in Ethiopia, like much of Africa, hydro will play an important role.

I met with Dr. Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia's Minister of Water and Energy.

How was the dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam?

How was that conceived?

- Well, the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam and you know, cascade of dams in the Blue Nile has been in the talk since the 1960s.

- Okay.

- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation identified these sites in Ethiopian Blue Nile Gorge.

The construction started in 2010.

- It's a big investment, GERD.

- Yeah.

- I've read some five billion dollars plus or minus.

How was that financing put in place and where does it stand today?

- The financing is purely by people in the government of Ethiopia.

People buy bonds, provide also gifts to the construction of the dam.

So you can say all walks of life really contribute to the dam.

- But no external funds to begin.

- No external funds.

- I read that you had a vision in the government, a hundred percent electricity by 2024, I think I read.

- 2025, yes.

- 2025.

Are we still on track for that or big networks being built?

- There is a grid expansion.

- Okay.

- That grid expansion brings energy from the grid, from GERD and other previous dams.

Recently we completed our national electrification program where, through that kind of approach, you can only reach 70% of the country.

- Right.

- So GERD plays very seriously in overall economic growth of the country and well being of the people.

- Financing the dam and distributing its electricity are two of the biggest challenges in any hydropower project.

And not everyone agrees on how to solve them.

I met with Rudo Sanyanga from International Rivers and anti-dam advocacy group.

Maybe you could summarize a little bit for me just what, what you see as the big challenges with these major dam projects, particularly in Africa.

- Okay, one of the biggest challenges is that they are very expensive for the countries.

They indebt the countries for generations.

Secondly, Africa needs energy right now.

These dams take long.

- Right.

- Most of the electricity goes to industry and to urban centers, leaving out the majority who in Africa tend to live in the rural areas.

Africa needs other energy options because grid electricity will not bridge the energy poverty.

- Interesting.

These things are really expensive, especially the big ones.

How are they financed?

What's the process there to say, "We're gonna build a five billion dollar dam?"

How are we gonna get the money?

- The money's from loans.

- From loans.

- Yeah.

The World Bank following the world commission on dams had stopped funding large hydro.

The Chinese came in to take that space.

- This Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, is it better or worse than the typical project or the same?

- I've heard African governments kind of actually admiring the courage, if I may use the term.

[Scott] Yeah.

- That Ethiopia took.

- Okay.

- You didn't need that outside support to go ahead anyway.

Knowingly that it's slated at 4.8 and I think 1.8 is coming from China, - One point eight?

- Billion.

- Billion.

[Rudo] To build the dam.

- Okay.

- But nobody talks about that 1.8.

It's like they're raising everything within Ethiopia.

[Scott] In many African countries, China has traded infrastructure funding for mineral rights, which could lead to conflict in the future.

Chinese involvement in these projects is an important question.

I had heard someone say that there were Chinese workers here, is that true?

- There is one contract which we recently gave to a Chinese company.

The main contractor is actually an Italian.

- Yeah.

- You see at the sites at peak time, we have around 10,000 local people.

- 10,000?

- 10,000.

- Local workers.

- Workers and it ranges from semi-skilled to skilled professionals.

And as well, we have around 200 to 300 expatriates.

- I see.

Okay.

To get an outside perspective on the dam's financing, I called the Reuters Africa Bureau, but they hadn't heard anything about Chinese funding here.

Wow.

This is-- The scale of, this is just crazy.

What's the capacity of one of these?

- One generator is 400 megawatts.

- Four hundred, and that's 24/7, 365.

That's always on if you want it on.

- Yes.

- That's crazy.

And there's 16 of these in this whole facility.

- Sixteen of these.

- How much water, just ballpark is moving through this?

- Around 350, 330 meter cube.

- Three hundred fifty cubic meters every... - Meters per second.

- Every second?

- Every second.

- Unbelievable.

I did learn that one Ethiopian contractor had been fired and charged with fraud.

Another challenge in this kind of project.

But overall, I had a very positive impression of the dam and its construction team.

You've been involved with this how long?

- This project, the conceptual design started in year 2010.

- But you're here heading it up now.

- Now, yes.

- How does that make you feel?

- Well, it's a challenge.

There are a lot of challenge in the project.

So it's good to solve a challenge.

As a project manager, you are here to solve challenge.

- Right.

It's quite a legacy though, isn't it?

- It is really, it is really.

- I mean, how many people get to say, "I led the construction of one of the biggest power plants in the world."

- I think it's a pride for me as well.

I have a moral obligation also to contribute to my country.

- Sure.

What does this dam, how will that contribute to lifting up Ethiopia economically?

- The country is leading toward industrialization.

Well, agricultural-based industrialization.

So for industry, having a reliable and cheap electricity backbone.

- We've seen some small villages here that are probably unelectrified, I would think.

Cooking inside with wood and other things.

- So the government has an aggressive program to electrify the country as well.

- So you'll be able to provide electricity to citizens of Ethiopia.

- And also we are connected to the neighboring countries.

We are building a big transmission line with a capacity of over 1,000 megawatt to Kenya, which will be a venue to be connected to the Southern African grid.

- Right.

- It's not only for Ethiopia, I think it's the pride for Africans as well.

Not to Ethiopians alone.

- Yeah, for all of Africa.

- Yeah, all of Africa.

[gentle music] However, like any dam on a river that crosses borders, this one has challenges with international politics.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam sits on the Blue Nile, upstream of both Sudan and Egypt.

While those countries have built their own dams, Egypt in particular is worried about Ethiopia using and controlling the Nile's Headwaters.

[Interpreter] If the Nile River's water decreases by a single drop, then our blood is the alternative.

[people shouting] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] - We have got a political crisis now with the Nile, and it dates back when the Nile Treaty was signed being sponsored by the British, giving Egypt and Sudan exclusive rights to the water.

- Right.

- Then the Nile countries formed their own in the last decade.

They formed their own grouping and came up with their own agreement.

And they are basically saying, we don't recognize this colonial treaty.

- Okay.

- We also have a right to the Nile and Ethiopia rightly says so.

We have all this water and you can't deny us use of this water.

- At the University of Addis Ababa, Dr. Yacob Arsano is an Ethiopian hydropolitics expert.

So what does the dam allow Ethiopia to do with the water currently?

The water that Ethiopia can keep and use and what will it will have to release down through Sudan and to Egypt.

Is there a plan for that yet?

- There's a lot of rainfall in Ethiopia from June to September.

So that is the time the dam gets filled.

- Okay.

- The filling will take between five and seven years.

And there is also a provision that if there are drought years, then the filling of the dam does not take place.

Egypt does not really want big projects in the upstream.

- Right.

- Well, actually on this dam, Egyptians are much, much more conciliatory because Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating through panel of experts, which is an international one, including experts from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt.

- Okay.

- And you know, up to now they are engaged on a regular basis.

And these engagements are not only at water minister level, but at foreign ministerial level, at a higher level between leaders of the governments of the three countries.

- Right.

So there are plans in place to sell that electricity.

- Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.

- It's an exciting opportunity.

- Yeah.

- The electricity, the revenue from that electricity, that's a big thing.

That maybe encouraged some of these agreements.

- Yes, yes.

This water must be thought to be owned by everybody in the basin, which means the water is shared, but how to do this, they have to sit together and work on it.

- Sure.

- From economic point of view, from environmental point of view, from political point of view, from all points of view.

- Kia Giza Hengi one of Dr. Arsano's graduate students studying Ethiopian public opinion of the dam.

Does it change the status of Ethiopia then?

Does it make Ethiopia more prominent?

- Among the region?

Yeah, because we are selling electricity to Kenya and Sudan, and we are using the river, which was not possible for centuries.

And no other upstream countries have been able to do that.

- Now, it'll make a lot of electricity when it's completed.

What do the people think will happen with that electricity?

- So as you know, like there is a lot of electric pockets even in Addis.

So that's what people want in a way.

- We've had a couple in our hotels.

- Exactly.

So it has been common nowadays to have pockets even in the capital.

So later alone in the other parts.

So, this dam or other hydroelectric dams, people need it.

- So when you're visiting with the people, what are their perceptions of the dam?

- So it depends on who you talk to.

- Okay.

- When the construction of the dam started, people were not so enthusiastic about the dam.

- So at first they didn't trust the government.

Just another big project.

- Yep.

If you go closer to the dam, like in Buba.

- Right.

- They were not even aware that there was a dam being used in that area, yep.

- The people that live nearby?

- In the valley.

But then later on, the involvement of Egypt, the fact that the president threatened war against Ethiopia and everything became a national issue.

It was a threat to the nation.

- Right.

- So people start drifting from looking at the dam from a political propaganda, to a national project.

- And people started to say, "This is our water, this is our silt and our soil."

- But what was interesting from our research was most of the people we interviewed were not focused on that.

They were more focused on how this can bring the nation together.

And how us as a generation, we can build a legacy.

- What do you think?

- Personal.

- Yeah.

- Um... so, uh... personally, I'm not a big fan of big mega projects, particularly when it comes to hydroelectric dams.

And also, we also have to think of the people who have been displaced.

- Right, so their way of life will change permanently.

- Yes.

But still, overall, would you see this as a positive thing for Ethiopia or not?

- As a dam, I don't think it's going to bring some so much change.

- Yeah.

- But, as I've told you, it brought in a way the public together.

- Yes.

- So there's pride.

- Yes.

- Talk a little bit about what your experience is.

When you started working on these, it was a good thing.

- Yes, it was a good thing.

I was working for the National Parks Department of Zimbabwe and working on Lake Kariba.

As you know, when Kariba was built, it was the world's largest dam.

I was very proud to be, like, part of that whole system and what men had created.

- Sure.

- But then I started visiting the fishing camps.

Most of them were the residents of the, what they called the Gwembe Valley, which was flooded by Lake Kariba.

And they used to grow their crops and live in that valley.

But when the dam was filled, they were moved off the valley to a higher ground, but that higher ground is very desert-like semi-arid.

The soils are not good for agriculture.

And people were struggling.

- So their way of life before depended on the river.

They didn't have electricity or energy, but they weren't in poverty because they used the resources of the river.

- In the best of cases that we have, people have been compensated for lost assets.

Right?

But they have not been compensated for livelihood loss.

- Right.

- And we find over and over again, three, four years down the line, people are struggling to survive.

[gentle music] - Back at the dam site, I talked to Abraham Faseja, an Ethiopian journalist who's written about the several thousand people who are being displaced by this project.

We're sitting here on the upstream side of the GERD.

In a few years, we would be under about 140 meters of water.

And there used to be people that lived here in this area and they're gonna be displaced as this fills.

How did they live?

- It was a very primitive way of living.

Sometimes they are dependent on fishing.

[Scott] Yes.

- But no farm, no other activities.

The relocation is to give them a better life.

They have never been to school.

They had no access to clean water.

So now with relocating them, schools are open, clinic is opened.

So at least, at the minimum, they have an access.

- Are many of these part of your family?

[speaking foreign language] - So your life is very different now.

[speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] - As a journalist, when I was talking to them, even they have never seen a police force or a judge or an administrator in their life.

- Sure.

- Now they are coming to a modernization.

They start talking about justice, they start talking about medicine.

Now they are having those things.

I'm not saying that it's enough.

[Scott] Right.

- But there is a difference from their previous life to the current one.

- So, the electricity, which will come to this pole, comes from the new dam.

[speaking foreign language] Your little boy will be able to go to school now.

[speaking foreign language] [Scott] I hardly got a complete picture of these people during my afternoon at the village, but they, like most Ethiopians I met, seemed enthusiastic for change and hopeful for a more modern future.

As you think about Ethiopia and its future, 10, 20, maybe even 50 years down the road, how do you see that playing out?

- We'd like to see more schools, more clinics, more infrastructure.

And we'd like to see more students going to school.

- Absolutely.

That is what is the wish of the Ethiopian people.

[Scott] So this project has the potential to really change that landscape.

- It has already changed the life of Ethiopians because we have small dams here and that has already shown how it changed the life of people.

- Sure.

- So with this mega project, definitely that will be a big change.

- Keep reading.

- Without electricity, transformation of economy and the coming out of poverty is impossible.

So energy is everything basically.

Therefore, to improve the livelihood of people, you need reliable and sufficient energy.

So GERD really adds a lot of value in that within Ethiopian context.

- Africa needs energy.

We can't totally rule out that a hundred percent of dams are not good.

But they have to be properly selected, designed, so that they have minimal impacts.

And the beneficiaries of that dam should be the people who need it most.

- Right.

- Yeah.

[Scott] Since I visited the GERD, Ethiopia has partly filled the dam's reservoir and started its first two turbines generating electricity.

But despite several attempts, they haven't been able to negotiate a treaty with Sudan and Egypt over shared water use.

[gentle music] Who knows what might happen if a drought reduced both Ethiopia's electricity generation and the downstream country's water supply.

Before that happens, hopefully they'll reach an accord.

It will be important not only for the people of these countries and their future, but for the future of all new hydropower projects in Africa.

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