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Virtual: ‘Damned If You Do and Dammed If You Don’t: Troubled Waters Over the Nile’
October 1, 2020 at 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
A Discussion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Aaron Salzberg
Please join in a moderated conversation with Aaron Salzberg on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Salzberg served as the first Special Coordinator on Water at the U.S. Department of State—working on behalf of the United States to mitigate tensions over water in places where water is, or would become, a source of tension/conflict. For more than a decade (through six Secretaries of State), he worked with the Nile basin countries to address the potential for conflict.
Synopsis:
In 2011, Ethiopia began construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The dam would be the largest in Africa and produce more than 6,000 MW of power. While potentially providing substantial benefits to the region, it also posed an existential threat to the two downstream countries—Egypt and Sudan. Egypt threatened to go to war. Discussions between the countries have failed to solve the dispute. The dam is now filling and a potential conflict looms.
Moderated by Erika Weinthal, professor of environmental policy and public policy in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
Organized by the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. Co-sponsored by the African Studies Center; Curriculum in Global Studies; Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense; Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies; Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center; Georgia State University Middle East Studies Center; and The Water Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill.