A satellite image of the brochure shows a close-up view of the Ethiopian Renaissance Great Dam (GERD) and the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia, June 26, 2020. Satellite Image © 2020 Maxar Technologies via REUTERS
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia began filling the Great Renaissance dam, a giant hydroelectric project being built on the Blue Nile, its water minister said Wednesday, a day after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the matter they stalled.
“The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Seleshi Bekele said in comments broadcast on television.
On Tuesday, talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to regulate the flow of water from the hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile did not reach an agreement.
The dam is the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s largest energy exporter, but has raised concerns in Cairo that the limited waters of the Nile, on which its population of more than 100 million people depend almost entirely, they would be further restricted.
Report by Dawit Endeshaw; editing by John Stonestreet and Giles Elgood
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