03 Nov 2020; MEMO: A Sudanese expert on international law and water policy has said that his country will benefit from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the BBC reported on Sunday. Salman Mohamad called on the government in Khartoum to reach a peaceful solution for the crisis caused by the dam.
The report on the BBC World Service pointed to the unprecedented flooding in Sudan a couple of months ago that killed more than 100 people and affected 875,000 others. Entire residential neighbourhoods were destroyed, and power and water supplies were disrupted when the River Nile recorded its highest level in living memory.
The legal expert, however, noted that Egypt’s Aswan Dam demonstrates how flood waters can be regulated effectively on the Nile. He believes that once the GERD is fully operational, flooding in Sudan will be much less disastrous.
“We lost people and properties,” said Mohamad, “but look at Egypt; it hasn’t lost a single seedling because the flood water is kept in their high dam and we don’t have one like that. The Ethiopian dam could have saved it all.”
Sudan does have eight dams on the River Nile, but the reservoirs are too small, he added. “Egypt has managed to use the flood water for its agricultural projects in the desert.”
