The Establishment Of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) And The Structural Violence On Impacting Environment Of Egypt 2018-2021

Abstract

The countries in the Middle East are countries that are surrounded by deserts, which certainly has an impact on the scarcity of water resources. The Nile River, as one of the streams that feeds several countries in the Middle East, is also currently in conflict due to the unequal distribution of water supply. As a result, Ethiopia initiated the building of a Grand dam in May 2010 and 5 upstream countries signed a Cooperative Framework Agreement which was named the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This dam can accommodate 74 bcm. The GERD will also be the largest hydropower plant in Africa and one of the largest in the world. However, in its construction, there have been negative impacts on downstream countries, one of which is Egypt. This study discusses how the establishment of the GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) caused structural violence on environment of Egypt using concept of structural violence by Johan Galtung. Through this theory, the researcher observed how the establishment of the GERD which was initiated by Ethiopia, how Ethiopia accidentally harmed Egypt’s environment and is latently reducing the quality of the water that flows in to Egypt and also decreasing the quantity of water, which can lead to water scarcity for the Egyptian people. In addition, it can also have an impact on the desertification of agricultural land in Egypt due to the declining quality and quantity of incoming water. It is also predicted that climate change will cause an increase in average temperature by 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Celsius in the next few years.