Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to hold further talks on Renaissance Dam

Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have agreed to resume talks to break a deadlock on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) reservoir on the Blue Nile, the leaders of all three countries said.

The announcements, made separately by the Ethiopian leader Abiy Ahmed, Sudan’s Abdalla Hamdok and Egypt’s presidency, followed a virtual mini-African Union summit that was called after they failed to reach agreement earlier this month.

“The extraordinary meeting … concluded with all parties reaching a major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement,” Abiy’s office said in a statement posted on Twitter.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, who chaired Tuesday’s online meeting of the African Union (AU), confirmed that there would be further negotiations.

“The trilateral negotiations remain on track,” Ramaphosa wrote on Twitter.

Both Sudan and Egypt fear that the US$4 billion hydroelectric dam could lead to water shortages in their own countries.

The project has raised concerns in Egypt that already limited Nile waters will be restricted further. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile, from which Egypt gets 90% of its freshwater.

Addis tank already full

”It was agreed, at the conclusion of the summit, to continue negotiations and focus for the time being on giving priority to developing a binding legal agreement on the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam,” a statement from the Egyptian presidency said.

Ethiopia, which says it needs the dam to generate electricity for its people and power industry, has already achieved its complement for the first year of filling the dam, because of a season of heavy rainfall in the area, the statement from Abiy’s office said.

“The dam under construction is already overtopping,” the statement said, adding that Ethiopia remains committed to a “balanced and win-win” negotiation which will ensure that the river benefits all three countries.

Denials 

Earlier, Ethiopia told Sudan that news reports suggesting that it had started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir on the Blue Nile were incorrect.

Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement to that effect last week.

Ethiopia’s chargé d’affaires in Khartoum also told a senior Sudanese Foreign Ministry official at a meeting that his country had not closed the dam gates, the statement said.

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