CAIRO, Egypt —
Ethiopia has started the second phase
of filling a mega-dam's reservoir on the upper Blue Nile, Egypt and Sudan said,
raising tensions Tuesday ahead of an upcoming UN Security Council meeting on
the issue.
اضافة اعلان
Both Cairo and Khartoum said they had been notified by Addis
Ababa that the second phase of filling had begun at the
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Egypt's irrigation ministry late Monday expressed its
"firm rejection of this unilateral measure" and Sudan's foreign
ministry on Tuesday followed suit, labelling the move a "risk and imminent
threat."
In Addis Ababa, the offices of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and
Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele did not immediately respond to AFP's
requests for comment.
The huge dam, set to be Africa's largest hydroelectric
project when completed, has sparked an almost decade-long diplomatic stand-off
between Addis Ababa and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia says the project is essential to its development,
but Cairo and Khartoum fear it could restrict their citizens' water access.
Both governments have been pushing Addis Ababa to ink a
binding deal over the filling and operation of the dam, and have been urging
the UN Security Council to take the matter up in recent weeks.
Thursday's UNSC meeting was requested by Tunisia on behalf
of Egypt and Sudan, a diplomatic source told AFP.
But France's ambassador to the UN said last week that the
council itself can do little apart from bringing all the sides together.
"We can open the door, invite the three countries at
the table, bring them to express their concerns, encourage them to get back to
the negotiations and find a solution," he told reporters.
'Existential threat'
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in a note to
the UN that negotiations are at an impasse, and accused Ethiopia of adopting
"a policy of intransigence that undermined our collective endeavors to
reach an agreement".
Relations between Cairo and Addis Ababa have been icy over
the past decade. Tensions have also risen between Ethiopia and Sudan as the
Tigray conflict has sent refugees fleeing across the border into Sudan.
Shoukry and his Sudanese counterpart Mariam al-Mahdi met in
New York ahead of the Security Council talks and reiterated their "firm
rejection" of Ethiopia's move, Cairo said.
Addis Ababa had previously announced it would proceed to the
second stage of filling in July, with or without a deal.
Ethiopia argues that adding water to the reservoir,
especially during the heavy rainfalls of July and August, is a natural part of
the construction process.
"Filling goes in tandem with the construction,"
said a senior official at the water ministry. "If the rainfall is as you
see it now in July, it must have begun."
The Nile — which at some 6,000 kilometers is one of the
longest rivers in the world — is an essential source of water and electricity
for a dozen East African countries.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its
irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam as an existential threat.
Sudan hopes the project will regulate annual flooding but
fears its own dams would be harmed without agreement on the Ethiopian
operation.
The 145-meter tall mega-dam, construction of which began in
2011, has a reservoir with a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters.
Filling began last year, with Ethiopia announcing in July
2020 it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic meters — enough to test the
dam's first two turbines, an important milestone on the way towards actually
producing energy.
The goal is to add 13.5 billion cubic meters of water this
year.
Egypt and Sudan wanted a trilateral agreement on the dam's
operations to be reached before any filling began. But Ethiopia says it is a
natural part of the construction, and is thus impossible to postpone.
Last year, Sudan said the process had caused water
shortages, including in the capital Khartoum — a claim Ethiopia disputed.
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