Egypt and Sudan criticize Ethiopia at the start of new talks on Nile dams

CAIRO / KHARTUM (Reuters) – Egypt and Sudan criticized Ethiopia for what they called the unilateral filling of its Blue Nile dam in a new round of talks that began on Monday to regulate the flow of water from the major project.

Sudan and Egypt fear that the $ 4 billion hydroelectric dam may cause water shortages in their own countries. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile, from which the 100 million inhabitants of Egypt obtain 90% of their fresh water.

Nearly a decade of tortuous negotiations have failed to reach an agreement to regulate how Ethiopia will fill the reservoir and operate the dam while protecting Egypt’s scarce water supplies.

The Great Renaissance Dam of Ethiopia is being built about 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, which provides most of the water in the Nile after it meets the White Nile in Sudan.

Last week, Ethiopia, which says it needs the dam to generate electricity for its people, said it had already reached its first-year target to fill the reservoir, thanks to a heavy rainy season.

Egypt and Sudan expressed concern about “unilateral filling,” which they said “shadowed the meeting and raised many questions about the feasibility of the current course of negotiations and reaching a fair deal,” the Egyptian Irrigation Ministry said in a release.

Sudan said Ethiopia’s action was “a damaging and disturbing precedent in the course of cooperation between the countries involved,” according to a statement from its Irrigation Ministry.

There was no immediate news from Ethiopia. Among the issues at stake in the talks, organized by the African Union, are how the dam will function during the “dry years” of reduced rain and whether the agreement and its mechanism to resolve disputes should be legally binding.