[ad_1]
Ministers from the three African nations participated in week-long talks negotiated by the African Union, the European Union and the World Bank.
Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have resumed their talks on the controversial Addis Ababa dam on the Blue Nile River, just over a week after US President Donald Trump warned that Cairo could “blow up” if it was not resolve disputes.
The week-long negotiations, which are carried out by videoconference, began on Sunday and include the water ministers of the three countries, as well as representatives of the African Union, the European Union and the World Bank.
The latest round of talks came three months after the suspension of dialogue between African neighbors on the construction of the $ 4.6 billion mega-dam by Ethiopia.
Previous tripartite talks failed to reach agreement on the filling and operation of the vast reservoir behind the 145-meter (475-foot) high Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
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.
Ethiopia, on the other hand, 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, including 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 Trump appeared to suggest that Egypt could destroy the mega dam, comments Ethiopia saw as inciting a “war.”
“It is a very dangerous situation because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way … They will end up blowing up the dam,” said the US leader.
However, 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 Ethiopian highlands, meets the White Nile that flows from East Africa into Sudan’s capital Khartoum to form the Nile River, traditionally considered the longest river in the world.
[ad_2]
