In a couple of weeks, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the biggest hydroelectric dam on the African continent, will be inaugurated. The construction of this dam has taken more than a decade and has cost nearly $5bn. The government and people of Ethiopia mobilised the funds for this national project from their meagre internal resources. No international financing was made available for this project.

While the construction of the dam has received some international media attention, the media coverage has not made clear the Ethiopian perspective. This is a modest attempt to rectify that problem.

The GERD is constructed on the Blue Nile, which Ethiopians call Abay. Abay means “big” or “major” in several Ethiopian languages. Abay is one of the main tributaries of the Nile River. Although many associate the Nile almost exclusively with Egypt, the river traverses 10 other African countries. Among these countries, Ethiopia holds a unique position because 86 percent of the Nile water that reaches Egypt originates from the Ethiopian highlands.

Abay is the biggest river in Ethiopia with a huge potential to boost overall socioeconomic transformation and development. It has been a long-held aspiration of Ethiopians to utilise this resource. The GERD is a national development project that fulfils this........

© Al Jazeera