Ethiopia begins to fill the dam of the Great Renaissance, says minister

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 televised comments. “The filling of the dam does not need to wait until its completion.”

The water level had risen from 525 meters to 560 meters, he said.

Egyptian and Sudanese officials could not immediately be reached for comment. But the move is likely to provoke fierce protests from those countries, which also depend on the waters of the Nile.

On Tuesday, talks between the three nations to regulate the flow of water from the dam did not reach an agreement.

The $ 4 billion Ethiopian Renaissance Great Dam will have an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts, more than double its existing capacity, and is the centerpiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s largest energy exporter.

But it has raised concerns in Cairo that the already limited waters of the Nile, on which its population of more than 100 million depends almost entirely, would be further restricted. Egypt gets 90% of its fresh water from the Nile.

The dam is being built about 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, the source of most of the waters of the Nile. Sudan and Egypt have sought a legally binding agreement before the dam is filled.