Obstacles remain as clock runs down on attempt to reach Nile Dam agreement
A last-ditch, two-week window for Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to negotiate a deal on the operation of a Nile dam being built by Ethiopia is nearing its end without any tangible progress.
Representatives of each nation spoke on Friday for the eighth consecutive day and, according to the daily update by Egypt, no progress was made on the main problems.
The latest round in nearly a decade of talks took on more urgency because of Ethiopia’s insistence it will fill the dam’s reservoir even if no deal is reached. Egypt and Sudan opposed such a move, and Egyptian leaders said they would never accept such a situation.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or Gerd, is being built on the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border. Ethiopia said its development depended on the $4.5 billion (Dh16.52bn) hydroelectric dam, which it said it was entitled to build as a sovereign nation.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for 90 per cent of its water, said it had no quarrel with Ethiopia’s development ambitions and was ready to accept a reasonable reduction of its share of the river’s water. But Egypt wanted a legally binding deal that ensured it will not go thirsty during lengthy spells of drought, and a reliable and effective mechanism for resolving disputes.
It said Ethiopia baulked at both demands.
After years of siding with Ethiopia, Sudan has lately voiced concern about the safety of the dam, given a rupture in the structure would flood swathes of its territory.
While Khartoum welcomed the regulated flow of the Blue Nile, the river’s main tributary, to spare it such a fate, it said it must work closely with Ethiopia to ensure its own hydroelectric dams on the Blue Nile continue to operate effectively.
Energy-starved Sudan stands to gain cheap electricity from the 6,000-megawatt dam.
With days remaining until the two-week window ends, the positions of Egypt and Ethiopia appeared far apart, with Addis Ababa proposing a deal should be concluded but Egypt’s main technical concerns referred to a joint committee to settle later.
“This was rejected by Egypt in both form and content,” the Egyptian statement on Friday said.
“It’s not possible to refer to a committee the disputed points that touch on Egypt’s concerns about major issues representing the technical core of the agreement.”
Ministers from each country will resume talks today. If they end without agreement, it is not clear what the next step will be.
Egypt said it was open to international arbitration, but Ethiopia insisted the dispute should be resolved within Africa. It was Egypt’s initiative to involve third parties in the negotiations, with the latest round of talks attended by observers from the United States, the EU and South Africa, which currently chairs the African Union.
Egypt also took the issue to the UN Security Council before the current talks began, but the agency did not adopt a resolution.
At times, the long-running dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia has played out against a backdrop of a bitter exchange of accusations.
Ethiopia has accused Egypt of taking the lion’s share of the Nile waters without heeding the needs of other basin countries, and of clinging to colonial-era deals through which it secured the water.