[ad_1]
On Tuesday, the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources announced that Sudan had rejected an Ethiopian proposal to sign a partial agreement to fill the Lake Renaissance Dam, which is expected to start next July.
In a written statement distributed to the media, the ministry announced that Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok communicated Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Sudan’s position on the proposal, in correspondence that he intended to respond to a letter previously sent by the Prime Minister. Ethiopian.
The statement added: “We consider that the signing of any partial agreement for the first stage cannot be approved due to the technical and legal aspects, which must be included first in the agreement and which are determined by the coordination mechanism, data exchange, dam safety and environmental and social impacts. “
The statement quoted Hamad Saleh, Sudan’s top negotiator, stating: “Most of the problems are still under negotiation, the most important are the coordination mechanism, data exchange, dam security and environmental impacts and that are closely related. only for the first filling of the lake, but for the rest of the long-term stages and operations, and therefore the agreement cannot be fragmented. “
Ethiopia: dam dispute fuels sentiment against Egypt
In his letter, Hamdok emphasized his position on reaching a tripartite agreement between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and emphasized that: “The way to reach a comprehensive agreement is the immediate resumption of negotiations.”
In 2011, Ethiopia began building a $ 6 billion dam on the Blue Nile, the main branch of the Nile.
The Renaissance dam raised the concerns of Sudan and Egypt in terms of affecting their Nile water supply. Since then, the three countries have started negotiations to agree to limit the impact of the Ethiopian dam on both Sudan and Egypt.
Last February, Ethiopia refused to sign a proposal for an agreement presented by the United States, which participated in the negotiations last November as mediator together with the World Bank Group (WBG), to resolve the differences between the three countries.
Saleh noted a Sudanese attempt to resume negotiations with reference to “the Washington route” and explained: “We hope to see the results of those contacts resuming negotiations soon.”
[ad_2]
