CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt and Sudan on Saturday rejected an Ethiopian proposal to share data on the operations of its giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile after negotiations between the three countries in Kinshasa ended this week without progress.
Ethiopia fixes its hopes for economic development and power generation on the great dam of the Ethiopian Renaissance, which Egypt fears will jeopardize its supply from the Nile. Sudan is also concerned about the impact on its own water flows.
“Ethiopia invites Sudan and Egypt to designate dam operators for data exchange before filling GERD in the upcoming rainy seasons,” the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
But Cairo and Khartoum said they were looking for a legally binding agreement on dam operations, which Addis Ababa says is crucial to its economic development.
“Sudan believes that the exchange of information is a necessary procedure, but that the Ethiopian offer to do so in the manner indicated in its letter implies suspicious selectivity in dealing with what has been agreed. “Sudanese irrigation ministry said on Saturday.
Following the Kinshasa meeting, Ethiopia stressed that the filling of the dam reservoir for the second year will be carried out as planned.
Sudan will maintain 600 million cubic meters (785 million cubic yards) of water in its Jebel Awliya reservoir to “ensure the continued operation of the White Nile and Nile River pumping stations to meet agricultural water needs and drinking ”in preparation for Ethiopia’s needs. second filling, state news agency SUNA reported on Saturday.
The Egyptian irrigation minister told a local television talk show on Saturday that while reserves in the Aswan Dam could help prevent the effects of a second fill, his main concern was drought management.
Sudan and Egypt had proposed including the European Union, the United States and the United Nations as mediators, as well as facilitating talks by the African Union. The two countries said Ethiopia rejected the proposal during the Kinshasa meeting.
Report by Nadine Awadalla; edited by Jonathan Oatis