Ethiopia's plan to build a huge hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border has revived tensions around "water politics" in the wider region. The cornerstone for the Renaissance Dam (formerly named the Grand Millennium Dam) was laid at a ceremony attended by the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, on April 2nd. Once completed, it will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia and one of the largest in the world, with plans to produce 5,250 mw initially, rising to 10,000 mw by 2017. The scale of the project could make it the most significant development for decades between the nine Nile riparian countries. Building dams on the river has always been politically sensitive, and Egypt and Sudan have been the most vocal in opposing such projects in the past; Egypt has even gone as far as equating dam-building to acts of war against the Egyptian state. The country is heavily dependent on the river, using it for almost all its water needs.

Although Sudan and Egypt have dominated Nile negotiations in the past, a series of events over the past two years suggests that their dominion is coming to an end. Under the terms of colonial-era treaties signed with the UK in 1929 and with Sudan in 1959, Egypt and Sudan are entitled to over 90% of the Nile's waters, and Egypt has veto rights over any upstream developments. This lopsided agreement has been unchallenged for the better part of a century, largely because countries upstream of Egypt did not have the resources to build dams on the scale that Ethiopia is now planning. Moreover, with water and electricity demand growing in line with expanding economies, and high oil prices becoming a hefty burden for the state, governments have begun to seriously consider ways of exploiting the renewable resource that flows through their countries.