This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
On July 16, 2020, tensions rose between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as Addis Ababa refuted claims it had begun filling the dam, just days after talks failed to reach agreement on regulating the Nile waters.
According to a statement from Addis Ababa, the amount of water flowing downstream to Sudan and Egypt had predictably reduced after the dam structure was raised, absorbing more of the incoming water.
Dr. Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia's Water, Irrigation and Energy Minister, stated that his country had not blocked the flow of water as earlier claimed.
“The GERD construction has reached level 560m compared to level 525m last year this time. The inflow into the reservoir due to heavy rainfall and runoff exceeded the outflow and created natural pooling. This continues until overflow is triggered soon,” Dr. Seleshi said.
Both Sudan and Egypt have raised concerns that the mega-dam project could see their countries face water shortages since millions of their citizens depend on the Nile for livelihood.
The $4.5 billion mega-dam is projected to have a capacity of 6.4GW power when complete. Ethiopia says the project has reached a stage to start the initial storage process estimated at 4.9 billion cubic meters out of its 74 billion cubic meters capacity.
