Ethiopia today admitted to starting in the next two weeks to fill the reservoir of the hydroelectric dam, in which more than four million euros were invested, in the region of the Blue Nile, and whose construction will continue.
The announcement comes hours after the leaders of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia resumed talks aimed at reaching an agreement on this operation.
“A final agreement has now been reached between the three countries on some of the outstanding issues,” the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
Egypt and Sudan had said that Ethiopia would not fill that dam in the next month without reaching an agreement.
This morning, Ethiopia’s Minister for Water and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, confirmed that the countries had agreed at the African Union (AU) summit to restart negotiations and conclude a mega-project agreement within three weeks with the support of the AU.
The announcement represented a new boost after weeks of exchanging accusations and mounting tensions over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the largest in Africa, which Ethiopia promised to start filling at the beginning of the rainy season in July.
Ethiopia articulated its development ambitions on the colossal dam, describing it as a crucial lifeline to lift millions of people out of poverty.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for more than 90% of its water supply and is struggling with a major water problem, fears a devastating impact on an expanding population of 100 million people.
For its part, Sudan, which also depends on the Nile for water, played a key role in uniting the two sides after the failure of negotiations in February and brokered by the United States.
In an interview this month with the Associated Press, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew warned that his country could begin to fill the dam’s reservoir unilaterally after talks with Egypt and Sudan failed to reach an agreement on the manner in which the filling would be carried out and its operability.
African Union Commission President Moussa Faki Mahamat, without giving further details, said the countries “agreed to an AU-led process to resolve outstanding situations”.
The points of contention in the talks were the amount of water that Ethiopia will release downstream from the dam if a drought over several years occurs and how Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan will resolve future differences.
Both Egypt and Sudan called for the intervention of the United Nations Security Council in the crisis that has been going on for some years, helping countries to avoid a crisis.
The Security Council is due to hold a public meeting on the matter on Monday.
Ethiopia sees no need for such intervention and a new statement from the office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed informed at the meeting on Friday that he “resolved to notify the United Nations Security Council that the African Union has the capacity to resolve the subject matter”.
The declaration also urges the three countries in talks to “end their escalation of media interventions”.
Filling the dam’s reservoir without agreement could take the stalemate to a critical level and both Egypt and Ethiopia have suggested military measures to protect their interests and experts fear that a collapse in negotiations could lead to conflict.
–
