DRIVERS FOR SECURITIZATION AND DE-SECURITIZATION OVER THE NEGOTIATION OF THE GRAND ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM

Abstract

This study examined the drivers of securitization and de-securitization discourse over the negotiation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERD). The study employed a qualitative research approach in which data were gathered mainly from secondary sources such as journal articles, conference papers, books, riparian countries' water policy, report of the International Panel of Experts (IPoE) on GERD, governmental and intergovernmental organizations' briefings and statements. The central argument is that Egypt's securitization of
GERD as an existential water security threat is neither an actual nor a perceived threat. Current water scarcity in Egypt is not due to the hydropower projects of Ethiopia, like the Tana Beles and Tekezze hydroelectric power projects. Rather, water scarcity is largely attributed to Egypt’s poor water management, high evaporation at High Aswan Dam, and primitive irrigation system, and water-intensive agriculture. The study also identified that the discourse of absolute Nile water dependency and Egypt’s notion of ‘water security’ are the major drivers of Egypt’s securitization approach on GERD. However, the study shows that Egypt’s absolute Nile water dependency discourse is a myth. Rather, Egypt is a groundwater-endowed country with infinite access to seawater, so that its historicism of the Nile as a matter of life and death is a fabricated myth. Based on this, the author argues that GERD is an invented fictitious threat, neither has a legal ground nor is supported by scientific research. On the other hand, Ethiopia uses a tactical securitization-cum-desecuritization approach over the GERD issue using principles of
international water law, such as equitable and reasonable utilization, discourses of the right to development, and poverty reduction. Thus, two kinds of transformation are needed. On the part of Egypt, the securitizing actors should bring the securitized GERD into the realm of normal politics. On the part of Ethiopia, it should deconstruct the unwarranted myth of Egypt on GERD in particular and the Nile in general through proactive discourse targeting the international community, regional organizations, Nile River Basin countries, media, and the wider Egyptian public.