The Nile river is subject to political interactions. It is the world’s longest river flowing 6,700 kilometers through ten countries in northeastern Africa – Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt with varying climates.
Ethiopia rejected Egypt’s proposal over rules on the filling and operating of the dam, Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said.
Egypt said the East African country had “summarily rejected” its plan for key aspects of the operation while claiming Ethiopia’s overtures were “unfair and inequitable.”
The two nations held talks in Cairo and Sudan on Sunday and Monday, but they appeared to be fruitless as they did not address any “technical aspects,” according to the Egyptian ministry.
GERD was announced in 2011 and is designed to be the centrepiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, generating more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity.
In January, Ethiopia’s water and energy minister said that, following construction delays, the dam would start production by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022.
Although nationalist, and sometimes belligerent, rhetoric between Egypt and Ethiopia over the issue has cooled in recent years, the sides have remained deadlocked.
Egypt said in the note seen by Reuters that it shared its proposal for filling and operating the dam with Ethiopia and Sudan on July 31 and August 1, inviting the two countries for a meeting of foreign and water ministers.
“Unfortunately, in a letter dated August 12, 2019, Ethiopia summarily rejected Egypt’s proposal and declined to attend the six-party meeting,” it said.
Addis Ababa had instead proposed a meeting of water ministers to discuss a document that included an Ethiopian proposal from 2018, it said.
Last year the chief of the operation, a centerpiece for Ethiopia’s drive to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, was shot dead in Addis Ababa.
The Nile, The longest river in the world. And each country that it passes through wants to harness its power. It will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa and will ensure Ethiopia’s energy independence, in a country where electricity demand is rising by 30 percent each year. The problem: the Nile is not just Ethiopia’s, and it’s causing concern downstream in Egypt, a nation that has long controlled the Nile power with its impressive Assouan Dam. Egypt has proposed that the dam be filled over eight years, to minimize the lower water levels in the river. But Ethiopia won’t accept it taking longer than four.
