Ethiopia’s 6,000MW Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile River is the centrepiece of the country’s five-year Growth and Transformation Programme, which aims to turn the country into a middle-income nation by 2015, expanding its electricity coverage to 75% of the population and supplying the region with power. The dam’s commissioning was originally scheduled to begin during late 2013, but disputes over the potential impact on Ethiopia’s downstream neighbours, Sudan and Egypt, have hampered progress. In 2010, Ethiopia signed an agreement with several other countries in the region, except for Sudan and Egypt, asserting its right to build on the Blue Nile (AE 218/5).