This archive report was first published on 14 July 2020.
Published on July 14, 2020, Addis Ababa said the latest round of talks held to resolve the disagreement over the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia (GERD) on the Nile River ended on Monday without a breakthrough.
The negotiations, under the African Union chairman South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, were seeking to determine whether Ethiopia could begin filling the dam, the largest reservoir in Africa, without limiting the water supplies in Sudan and Egypt.
However, after ten days of talks, Ethiopia's Minister for Water, Irrigation and Energy, Dr Seleshi Bekele, said there had been no breakthrough, and blamed Khartoum and Cairo for raising new demands.
“Unchanged stances and additional and excessive demands of Egypt and Sudan prohibited the conclusion of this round of negotiation by an agreement,” Dr Seleshi said in a statement on Tuesday.
Both Ethiopia and Egypt admitted the absence of a comprehensive agreement will pose a challenge, but while both pledged to remain flexible in the talks, Addis Ababa said Khartoum and Cairo do not want to compromise on a number of issues.
The Grand Renaissance Dam has a projected capacity of 6,000 megawatts of electricity upon completion and has been built at a cost of $4.5 billion.
However, the project has been contentious over its filling and operation, with Sudan and Egypt demanding specified technical arrangements to ensure the volume of water downstream is not cut or reduced.
