The latest round of negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the latter’s contentious dam on the Blue Nile has ended without an agreement, according to Egyptian and Sudanese officials.
“All efforts made to reach a solution were without result,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Monday in an interview with Egypt’s DMC television channel.
The failure drowned modest hopes that the three countries could resolve their differences and sign an agreement on the operation of the dam before Ethiopia begins to fill the Great Renaissance Dam of Ethiopia (GERD), which will be the largest in Africa.
Addis Ababa had previously promised to start storing water in the vast dam reservoir at the beginning of the rainy season in July, when rains flood the Blue Nile.
The bitter dispute confronts Ethiopia’s desire to supply electricity to a significant part of its population that lacks it and to become a major exporter of energy by selling its surplus, against Egypt’s concern that the colossal dam will significantly reduce its water supply if it fills up too quickly.
Egypt, which relies almost entirely on the Nile for its freshwater supplies, views the project as a potentially existential threat. He is eager to achieve a legally binding agreement that guarantees minimal flows and a mechanism to resolve disputes before the dam begins to operate.
For its part, Sudan will benefit from the project through access to cheap electricity and reduced floods, but it has also raised fears about the dam’s operation, which could jeopardize its own smaller dams, depending on the amount of water discharged downstream. diary.
Years of talks with a variety of mediators have failed to find a solution, and the latest round, mediated by the African Union (AU) and watched by US and European officials, has not proven to be any different.
The three countries agreed that they would send their reports to the AU president and would meet again in a week to determine next steps.
There were no immediate comments from Ethiopia on the talks.
Filling the GERD without a deal would dramatically escalate tensions, and observers fear it could push countries to the brink of military conflict.
Shoukry warned that Egypt could be forced to appeal again to the UN Security Council to intervene in the dispute, a perspective that Ethiopia rejects, preferring that regional bodies like the AU mediate.
“If there is anything that threatens Egypt’s regional security and international security, it is the primary responsibility of the Security Council to adopt procedures that prevent this,” he said.
A satellite image of the brochure shows a close up view of the Great Renaissance Dam of Ethiopia and the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia [Reuters]
At a press conference on Monday, Sudan’s irrigation minister Yasser Abbas described a number of trouble spots.
Although the parties were “interested in finding a solution,” technical and legal disagreements persist over the filling and operation of the dam, he said. Most important, he said, are the unsolved questions about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multi-year drought occurs, and how countries will resolve any future disputes.
Hisham Kahin, a member of Sudan’s legal committee in the dam negotiations, said 70 to 80 percent of the negotiations focused on the thorny question of whether a deal would be legally binding.
Ethiopia, he said, fears that a binding agreement will hamper its future development projects. Sudan and Egypt consider him critical.
“All suggestions are under discussion,” said Kahin. “We have made very little progress.”
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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