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Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia kicked off the latest round of talks on Sunday over the controversial Addis Ababa dam on the Blue Nile, critical waters for the two downstream nations.
The week-long negotiations, conducted by videoconference, include the water ministers of the three countries, as well as representatives of the African Union, the European Union and the World Bank.
Previous tripartite talks have failed to reach agreement on the filling and operation of the vast reservoir behind the large 145-meter (475-foot) high Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) hydroelectric dam.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam as an existential threat.
Sudan hopes the dam will help regulate the floods, but also warned that millions of lives would be at “great risk” if Ethiopia unilaterally fills the dam.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia sees the project as essential for its electrification and development, and insists that downstream water flow will not be affected.
“The three parties agreed to continue discussing the issue through a six-member team that includes two representatives from each country,” Sudan’s Water Ministry said in a statement.
The team, he said, will put “a frame of reference” on the role of experts in facilitating the talks and will present its report to the water ministers of the three countries on Wednesday.
In July, Addis Ababa declared that it reached its first-year goal of filling the mega-dam’s reservoir, which can hold 74 billion cubic meters (2.6 billion cubic feet) of water.
Last month, US President Donald Trump appeared to suggest Egypt might destroy him in comments Ethiopia viewed as inciting “war.”
Egypt and Sudan have long called for a political solution to the dispute, expressing their rejection of any unilateral action by Ethiopia.
The Blue Nile, which rises in the highlands of Ethiopia, meets the White Nile that flows from East Africa in Sudan’s capital Khartoum to form the Nile, traditionally considered the longest river in the world.
