The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is designed to trap 100 years of sediment inflow. Lack of sediment data and rapid land degradation may result in higher sediment yields than expected. Reduction of sediment inflow through watershed management is key to achieving long-term sustainability. Debre Yakob watershed demonstrates a successful example of economically self-supporting watershed management.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a 6,450 MW hydropower project nearing completion on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, located about 30 km upstream of the border with Sudan. It will be the largest hydropower project in Africa. Owned and operated by the Ethiopian Electric Power company, the 145-m-tall roller-compacted concrete gravity dam will flood 1,874 km2 at a normal pool elevation of 640 m and will have a tributary catchment of 172,250 km2. With a volume of 74 km3 (of which 14.8 km3 is dead storage), the reservoir can hold about 1.6 years’ worth of average flow of the Blue Nile - 48.5 km3/yr - at the El Diem gage station, just below the border in Sudan (Conway 1997).