Nile Nations Resume Talks over Dam

Negotiations have resumed once again between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on Tuesday over the Grand Renaissance Dam, a giant hydropower project which is being built in Western Ethiopia.

The talks previously held in Washington had been in deadlock since last year. Now, over virtual meetings, negotiations have started up once again with the US acting as a mediator.

The ground was broken on the project back in 2011 and it is set to be Africa’s biggest hydroelectric powerplant once completed. One of the Nile’s two sources, the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia will flow into the dam to eventually fill a reservoir larger in size than the whole of Greater London.  

Egypt has taken issue with the dam, however, as it argues that Ethiopia will hold sole control over Africa’s largest river and water supply.

If the reservoir is filled too quickly, the downstream flow of the river will be affected and the threat of drought in the Saharan countries of Sudan and Egypt will be greatly increased.

Ethiopia argues that the project can be completed in six years. Egypt says this is dangerously fast and has repeatedly pushed for a longer time frame.

So far, the talks between the three Nile countries have taken four years, and each period of negotiations has ended in deadlock. In September 2019, the Egyptians posed a new timetable to fill the dam in 12 to 21 years, preserving the water supply downstream.

According to Ethiopia’s Water Minister Seleshi Bekele, "This is not acceptable on any measurement."

Photo: Reuters