Ethiopia begins filling Grand Renaissance dam on Blue Nile

Ethiopia started filling Grand Renaissance, a giant hydroelectric dam it is building on the Blue Nile, its water minister said on Wednesday after talks with Sudan and Egypt over the structure became deadlocked.

“The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Seleshi Bekele said in comments broadcast on a television.

Egypt – which is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for its fresh-water supplies – sees the project as a potentially existential threat.

It is anxious to secure a legally binding deal that would guarantee minimum flows and a mechanism for resolving disputes before the dam started operating.

Sudan stands to benefit from the project through access to cheap electricity and reduced flooding, but it has also raised fears over the dam’s operation

The latest round of negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the contentious dam ended with no agreement on Monday, according to Egyptian and Sudanese officials.

The failure sank modest hopes the three countries could resolve their differences and sign an agreement on the dam’s operation before Ethiopia begins to fill the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), set to be Africa’s largest.

Addis Ababa had previously pledged to start storing water in the dam’s vast reservoir at the start of the wet season in July, when rains flood the Blue Nile.

Source: Aljazeera