Sudan Concerned About Ethiopia’s Second Phase Of Filling Nile River Dam

by PH January 8, 2021, 11:03 am

ETHIOPIA-EGYPT-SUDAN-ECONOMY-ELECTRICITY-POLITICS [Urgency]=53 [Category]=FIN [Date Created]=2019:12:26 [By-line]=EDUARDO SOTERAS [By-line Title]=STR [City]=Guba [Country Code]=ETH [Country Name]=Ethiopia [Credit]=AFP [Source]=AFP [Caption]=A general view of the Blue Nile river as it passes through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba in Ethiopia, on December 26, 2019. - The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 145-metre-high, 1.8-kilometre-long concrete colossus is set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa. Across Ethiopia, poor farmers and rich businessmen alike eagerly await the more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity officials say it will ultimately provide. Yet as thousands of workers toil day and night to finish the project, Ethiopian negotiators remain locked in talks over how the dam will affect downstream neighbours, principally Egypt. (Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP)

Sudan on Thursday said it is concerned with Ethiopia’s announcement of intention to carry on with the second phase of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

“The announcement by the Ethiopian Minister of Irrigation and Energy on his country’s intention to proceed with the GERD filling for the second year of 13.5 billion cubic meters of water in coming July, without prior notification and without signing a deal or exchanging of information with the Al-Rusaires Dam, constitutes a direct threat to Al-Rusaires Dam and to the lives of those who live on the banks of the Nile,” said Yasir Abbas, Sudan’s Irrigation and Water Resources Minister.

The Sudanese minister made the remarks in a letter to South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, whose country is the current chair of the African Union (AU).

Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the AU patronage over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD.

Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources.