CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt and Sudan on Saturday rejected an Ethiopian proposal to share data on the operations of its gigantic hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile after negotiations between the three countries in Kinshasa ended without progress this week.
Ethiopia is pinning its hopes for economic development and power generation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt fears will jeopardize its supply from the Nile. Sudan is also concerned about the impact on its own water flows.
Ethiopia invites Sudan and Egypt to nominate dam operators for data exchange before filling GERD in the coming rainy seasons, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
But Cairo and Khartoum insisted they are seeking a legally binding agreement on the operation of the dam, which Addis Ababa says is crucial to its economic development.
Sudan believes that exchanging information is a necessary procedure, but Ethiopia’s offer to do so in the manner indicated in their letter implies suspicious selectivity in handling what has been agreed, “said the Sudanese. irrigation ministry Saturday.
After the meeting in Kinshasa, Ethiopia emphasized that the second-year filling of the dam reservoir would take place according to plan.
Sudan will hold 600 million cubic meters (785 million cubic meters) of water in the Jebel Awliya Reservoir to “ensure the continued operation of the pumping stations on the White Nile and Nile River to meet agricultural and drinking water needs”. preparation for Ethiopia. second fill, SUNA, Sudan’s state news agency, reported Saturday.
Egypt’s Irrigation Minister told a local TV talk show on Saturday that while reserves on Aswan High Dam could help avert the effects of a second fill, his main concern was managing the drought.
Sudan and Egypt had proposed to include the European Union, the United States and the United Nations as mediators, in addition to the African Union’s ongoing facilitation of the talks. Both countries said Ethiopia rejected the proposal at the meeting in Kinshasa.
Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; edited by Jonathan Oatis