Ethiopia stated Saturday it had begun a second spherical of talks with Egypt and Sudan over a controversial mega-dam constructed by Addis Ababa on the Nile, lengthy a supply of tensions among the many three nations.
Ethiopia this month introduced the completion of the fourth and remaining filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, prompting speedy condemnation from Cairo, which denounced the transfer as unlawful.
Egypt and Sudan worry the large $4.2 billion dam will severely cut back the share of Nile water they obtain and had repeatedly requested Addis Ababa to cease filling it till an settlement was reached.
For years at loggerheads over the difficulty, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed agreed in July to finalize a deal inside 4 months, resuming talks in August.
Ethiopia’s international ministry wrote on X, previously generally known as Twitter, that the three international locations had opened a second spherical of negotiations in Addis Ababa.
“Ethiopia is dedicated to reaching a negotiated and amicable answer via the continuing trilateral course of,” it stated.
Fears over water entry
Protracted negotiations over the dam since 2011 have to this point did not result in an settlement between Ethiopia and its downstream neighbors.
Egypt has lengthy seen the dam as an existential menace, because it depends on the Nile for 97% of its water wants.
Egyptian International Minister Sameh Shoukry, in an handle to the U.N. Common Meeting, stated that Cairo needed a “binding settlement” on the filling and operation of the dam.
“We stay in anticipation of our goodwill being reciprocated with a dedication from Ethiopia to reach at an settlement that may safeguard the pursuits of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia,” Shoukry stated.
“It might be a mistake to imagine we are able to settle for a fait accompli with regards to the very lives of greater than 100 million Egyptian residents.”
The dam is central to Ethiopia’s growth plans, and in February 2022 Addis Ababa introduced that it had begun producing electrical energy for the primary time.
At full capability, the large hydroelectric dam — 1.8 kilometers lengthy and 145 meters excessive — might generate greater than 5,000 megawatts.
That will double Ethiopia’s manufacturing of electrical energy, to which solely half the nation’s inhabitants of 120 million at the moment has entry.
The place of Sudan, which is at the moment mired in a civil conflict, has fluctuated lately.
The United Nations says Egypt might “run out of water by 2025” and elements of Sudan, the place the Darfur battle was primarily a conflict over entry to water, are more and more weak to drought resulting from local weather change.