Ethiopia began filling the Great Renaissance, a giant hydroelectric dam being built on the Blue Nile, its water minister said on Wednesday after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the structure stalled.
The dam is the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s largest energy exporter.
“The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Water Minister Seleshi Bekele said in comments broadcast on television.
Egypt told the United Nations last month that it faces an “existential threat” from the hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile River..
Relying on the Nile for more than 90 percent of its water supply and already facing high water stress, Egypt fears a devastating impact on its population of 100 million.
In June, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the conflict could flare up if the United Nations did not intervene, as the dam endangered the lives of 150 million Egyptians and Sudanese.
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Egypt, Ethiopia discuss Nile dam dispute at UN Security Council |
The largest dam in Africa
Cairo was eager to secure a legally binding agreement that would guarantee minimum flows and a mechanism to resolve disputes before the dam began to operate.
Sudan will benefit from the project through access to cheap electricity and reduced floods, but has also raised fears about the dam’s operation.
The latest round of negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the contentious dam ended without an agreement on Tuesday, according to Egyptian and Sudanese officials.
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 began to fill the $ 4.6bn Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), established to be the largest in Africa.
Ethiopia says More than 60 percent of the country is dry land with no sustainable water resources, while Egypt is endowed with groundwater and has access to seawater that could be desalinated.
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.
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