Nile dam is ready to operate after second filling completed, says Ethiopia

Ethiopia yesterday said it had completed the second filling of its hydroelectric dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, despite strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan.

“The second filling of our flagship project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, has been completed,” Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele said. “The dam’s two turbines will soon generate electric power. Congratulations, Ethiopia!”

Sudan urged its neighbour to resume negotiations.

It said it had taken precautionary measures to avoid a repeat of the problems it suffered during the first filling, when work at water treatment plants was disrupted, leaving tens of thousands of homes without drinking water for days.

Egypt did not immediately respond to Ethiopia’s statement.

It was not affected by last year’s filling, thanks to a flood that filled the reservoir behind its Aswan dam to near capacity. It is unlikely to suffer from the second filling, thanks to heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands, the source of the Blue Nile, the river’s main tributary.

The Blue Nile flows down eastern Sudan and meets the White Nile at Khartoum before it travels through northern Sudan and the length of Egypt to the Mediterranean. The Blue Nile contributes more than 80 per cent of the water reaching Egypt.

The Ethiopian minister did not say how much water was involved in the second filling.

Ethiopia initially said it would retain 13.5 billion cubic metres, but experts later said construction delays meant that about a third of that amount would be added to the reservoir behind the $5 billion dam.

Egypt and Sudan protested when Ethiopia announced the start of the second filling on July 5, three days before the dispute went to the UN Security Council.

The allies wanted a legally binding agreement over the operation of the dam to be agreed on before the filling but a decade of negotiations have failed to produce a deal.