Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have agreed to present proposals on the management of the gigantic and controversial Addis Ababa Nile hydroelectric dam within two days, the Sudanese water ministry said.
“After lengthy talks, the attendees decided on Tuesday to resume negotiations … to work on unifying the texts of the agreements submitted by the three countries,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The decision came during the talks led by the African Union between water and foreign ministers from the three countries on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Talks organized by South Africa, the current president of the African Union, were returned on Sunday after a brief suspension, a day after Egypt and Sudan expressed optimism that a deal could be reached.
The GERD, located in western Ethiopia on the Blue Nile River, has been controversial since Ethiopia broke ground on the $ 4 billion project in 2011.
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Years of talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan with a variety of mediators, including the administration of President Trump of the United States, have not produced a solution.
The two streams to the tributaries, Egypt and Sudan, have repeatedly stated that Ethiopia does not need to fill the reservoir without first reaching a deal.
The dispute reached a tipping point in July, when Ethiopia announced that it had completed the first stage of filling the dam’s 74 billion cubic meter reservoir, causing fear and confusion in Sudan and Egypt.
Egypt and Sudan halted talks with Ethiopia earlier this month after Addis Ababa proposed linking a deal on the completion and action of the GERD to a broader agreement on the waters of the Blue Nile.
That tributary begins in Ethiopia and is the source of as much as 85 percent of the Nile River. It was not clear whether that issue was addressed in Sunday’s talks.
During a meeting on Saturday in Khartoum, the Prime Minister of Sudan and Egypt said they were optimistic the talks would be fruitful.
“It is important to reach an agreement that guarantees the rights and interests of all three peoples,” the leaders said in a joint statement, adding that a “mechanism to resolve (future) disputes” should be part of every deal.
After Ethiopia, the GERD project offers a critical opportunity to lift millions of citizens out of poverty and become a major power exporter.
For Egypt, which depends on the Nile River to supply its farmers and the thriving population of 100 million with fresh water, the dam poses an existential threat.
Sudan, geographically located between the two regional powerhouses, says the project could endanger its own dams.
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