Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are convening for a fourth round of talks since they agreed to resume negotiations in the summer. Despite the huge dam built on the Nile River nearing its completion, there’s still no binding agreement among the three countries.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), under construction in Benishangul-Gumuz region, is slowly but surely approaching completion. It has taken nearly double the amount of time it was initially said it’d need. But in recent years the dam’s massive reservoir was filled for consecutive rainy seasons, and initial generation of electricity began to much fanfare. But the two downstream countries, particularly Egypt, has been unhappy about Ethiopia’s unilateral decision to start filling the reservoir.
In fact, there has been strong opposition from Cairo since construction began. Nonetheless, there have been repeated talks among the three countries. While progresses have been reported, there’s still no binding agreement especially on the issue of water use in times of drought.
Cairo and Khartoum say their water supplies are under threat but Ethiopia in turn accuses them of holding to an outdated colonial mentality over the Nile.
Diplomatic spats have been common as talks failed repeatedly only to be picked up again sometime later. True to this tradition, in July, a meeting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi resulted in an agreement to resume negotiations that had been discontinued. Now we are in the fourth round of these talks.
According to Seleshi Bekele, one of Ethiopia’s leading negotiators and the country’s Ambassador the US, Addis Ababa advocates for “equitable and reasonable utilization of the waters of the Nile” in the talks. It remains to be seen if results will emerge.
