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FILE PHOTO: Sudan’s new prime minister in the transitional government, Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Sudan, on August 24, 2019. REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / File Photo
CAIRO – November 23, 2020: Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok stated that the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) directly affects his country and stated that it should not be operated until an agreement is reached, as reported Al Arabiyah.
Sudan’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources had previously stated that it would not participate in the ministerial meeting held on GERD on November 21. On the other hand, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Irrigation participated in the meeting held under the auspices of the African Union. (AU). However, no results were announced.
Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources said in a statement on November 4 that the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian sides have not agreed on a methodology to complete the GERD negotiations.
This came as the water ministers of the three countries met on Wednesday to find an ideal framework for talks on GERD, under the auspices of the African Union.
The three parties agreed to submit a report each to South Africa, as the current president of the Union, which includes the course of the meetings and the vision on ways to implement the results of the meetings of the AU Assembly Bureau on 26 June and July 21.
Those two meetings have required the three countries to reach a binding legal agreement on the filling and operation of the massive dam.
The dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia dates back to May 2011, when Ethiopia began to build the dam; Egypt expressed concern about its involvement in the water [55.5 billion cubic meters].
Three years later, a series of tripartite talks between the two countries together with Sudan began to reach an agreement, while Ethiopia continued with the construction of the dam.
In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, according to which downstream countries should not be adversely affected by the construction of the dam.
In October 2019, Egypt blamed Addis Ababa for obstructing a final agreement on a technical problem, and called for the activation of Article 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries cannot find a solution to these disputes, they must ask for mediation.
Washington had negotiated a tripartite discussion between the three countries, in the presence of the president of the World Bank (WB) from November 6, 2019 until February 27 and 28, 2020, when Ethiopia apologized for being absent from the negotiations.
During these rounds of talks, the three parties agreed on tangible results on the rules and operating mechanism of the dam and the process of filling the reservoir during drought and prolonged drought; however, the Ethiopian and the Sudanese refused to sign the agreement drawn up by the United States and the World Bank.
Construction on the Grand Renaissance Dam began on April 2, 2011 at a cost of $ 4.8 billion. It was built by the Italian construction and engineering company Salini Impergilo. The Italian company is based in Milan. The dam is located on the Blue Nile with a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters and is expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of energy.
