Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia resumed negotiations Sunday over the controversial huge Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile, officials said.
The resumption came six weeks after Khartoum boycotted talks in November, urging the African Union to play a greater role in reaching a deal over the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The negotiations have centered on the filling and operation of the $4.6 billion dam. Key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multi-year drought occurs and how the three countries will resolve any future disputes. Ethiopia has rejected binding arbitration at the final stage of the project.
The foreign and irrigation ministers of the three Nile Valley countries met online Sunday, said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez. Sudan also confirmed the meeting.
Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Minister Seleshi Bekele said earlier the meeting was called by South Africa, the current head of the African Union, and that US observers and AU experts would attend.
In November, Sudan did not attend a round of talks called by South Africa, arguing that the current approach to reaching a tripartite agreement on the filling and operation of GERD had not yielded results.
Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said at the time that the AU should do more to “facilitate the negotiation and bridge the gap between the three parties.”
Egypt has called GERD an existential threat and worries that it will reduce the country’s share of Nile waters.
Ethiopia says the 145-meter tall dam will be an engine of development and is vital to meet the power needs of its population. Sudan, in the middle, worries about the effects on its own dams, although it stands to benefit from access to cheap electricity.
The Blue Nile, which meets the White Nile in the Sudanese capital, provides the great majority of the combined Nile’s flow through northern Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean.
