Ethiopia to keep filling Nile dam

ETHIOPIA said yesterday that it would not be deterred from impounding water at its Nile mega-dam, despite an impasse with downstream countries worried about their water supply.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011.

Downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its electrification and development.

The latest round of talks concluded this week in Kinshasa with no resolution to long-running disputes over how the dam will be operated. But Ethiopian water minister Seleshi Bekele said yesterday that Ethiopia would continue filling the dam’s massive reservoir during the rainy season, which normally begins in June or July.

The reservoir has a capacity of 74 billion m³. Filling began last year, with Ethiopia announcing in July that it had hit its target of 4.9 billion m³ – enough to test the dam’s first two turbines, a milestone towards actually producing energy.

The goal is to impound an additional 13.5 billion m³ this year. Egypt and Sudan wanted a trilateral agreement on the dam’s operations to be reached before reservoir filling began. But Ethiopia says filling is a natural part of the dam’s construction, and is impossible to postpone.

Last year Sudan said the filling process caused water shortages. Seleshi disputed this but said Ethiopia had offered to share data with Sudan.