Africa's biggest ever dam, on track to transform Ethiopia's economy, has caused extreme tension between its downstream neighbours.

The £3.8billion ($5bn) mega-dam is built on the Nile River’s largest tributary. Predicted to deliver over 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy, boosting Ethiopia's economy, the dam has been stalled due to rows with neighbouring countries. 

In Egypt, a country that relies on over 95 percent of its fresh water, the dam is seen as a huge threat to its supply, with the country refusing to rule out military action. Sudan, a country embroiled in a civil war, is caught in the middle of the conflict. 

Ethiopia began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011, funded largely by its own citizens. By the year 2020, the country had started to fill it. For scale, the dam’s reservoir will amount to the size of Houston, Texas. 

The dam is estimated to double Ethiopia's electricity output, which is life-changing news for the 60% of the population which doesn’t have access to electricity. With so much renewable energy, the economy will be revitalised as Ethiopia will be able to export to other countries. 

The GERD is capable of storing 74 billion cubic metres of water, roughly a year and a half's worth of water flow from the river it sits on, the Blue Nile. For years, Sudan and Egypt have been using the majority of the Blue Nile's resources in accordance with a 1959 agreement guaranteeing the two nations access to the river.

However, when the Nile waters were being developed, the original agreements only accounted for Egypt and Sudan. Sudan was granted 18 billion cubic metres of water annually for irrigation and Egypt was granted 55 billion cubic metres of water from the Nile, making up the majority of its freshwater supply for residents. Ethiopia was not included in the treaty.

The GERD is the country's largest Nile project in history. Therefore, it’s raising fears of reduced water supply further down the river due to its placement in Western Ethiopia, right before the Blue Nile enters Sudan.

However, Sudan has access to the White Nile too, with the GERD being able to help in preventing flooding. This results in the country being stuck in the middle to a certain extent, as it also shares Egypt’s concerns of needing to preserve their their water supply for their own agricultural purposes.

Sudan has requested a legally binding agreement with Ethiopia regarding the filling and operating of the GERD for regulations to prevent the compromisation of water flow. 

For Egypt, the situation is slightly more extreme. Leaders want Ethiopia to guarantee a similar amount of water to flow down from the river Nile each year to what they have now, yet Ethiopia is reluctant to make such agreements. 

The last series of acrimonious talks between the three countries fell apart in December.

Regarding the project, the reservoir is currently about 60 percent full with the dam generating around 750 megawatts of electricity.