Ethiopia’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, has announced that Ethiopia has begun filling of the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.
The giant hydroelectric project which was halted as talks with Sudan and Egypt proved abortive, is the Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power export.
With completion of the $4 billion worth dam, Ethiopia would see the country’s power capacity doubled with an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts.
While confirming the filling of the dam on Wednesday July 15, 2020, Seleshi said, “The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand.
“The filling of the dam doesn’t need to wait until the completion of the dam.”
Ethiopia has got stuck in negotiations with Sudan and Egypt over filling the dam. Negations came to a dead end on Tuesday when the countries failed to reach an agreement.
Sudan and Egypt expressed fears that the project could lead to their countries suffering from shortage of water.
Egypt’s concern over the dam which it called existential threat is that filling the dam would have considerable effect on amount of water it gets from Blue Nile from which the country gets its 90 percent of fresh water on which its million population depends heavily on.
The dam, built about 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Sudan has raised a troubling concern to Sudan as well.
Sudan which has condemned any unilateral action taken by any party as negotiations continue, had said filling the dam has already caused a decline of 90 million cubic meters per day of water it gets from Blue Nile.
While supporting their claim, the Sudan’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said, “It was evident from the flow meters in the al-Deim border station with Ethiopia that there is a retreat in the water levels, equivalent to 90 million cubic meters per day, confirming the closure of the gates of the Renaissance Dam.”
However, Sudan stands a chance to benefit from the dam if completed as the country could enjoy low-cost electricity and also see significant reduction in flood.
As negations seem to have hit a deadlock, it should be remembered that Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sameh Shoukry in June warned that building the dam would be at the cost of about 150 million Egyptians and Sudanese and could lead to conflict.
He therefore called for intervention of UN to help the countries resolve the issue and arrival at a conclusion that would be beneficial to the them all.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General through the U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric urged the countries to find a common ground to settle their differences.
Addressing reporters Stephane said the countries are urged to “seize the opportunity in the coming days to bridge remaining differences and reach a mutually beneficial agreement for their peoples”.
