Washington DC will be hosting renewed talks aimed at resolving a dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over a mega hydropower project on the River Nile.
Last year similar talks over how the $4 billion hydropower dam will be operated did not end well.
Ethiopia in September 2019 rejected a plan proposed by Egypt for operating the dam.
The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was announced in 2011.
It is could make Ethiopia Africa’s biggest power exporter, generating more than 6,000 megawatts.
Egypt and Ethiopia disagree over the annual flow of water that should be guaranteed to Egypt and how to manage flows during droughts.
Egypt relies on the Nile for 90% of its fresh water and it wants the GERD’s reservoir to release a higher volume of water than Ethiopia is willing to guarantee.
At the centre of the dispute is the speed with which Ethiopia fills the mega dam.
The dam although would not consume water, the speed with which Ethiopia fills up the dam’s reservoir will affect the flow downstream.
Ethiopia says the dam will start power production by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022.
A deadline of 15 January was set to solve the long-standing impasse. Should Monday’s talks fail to resolve issues another mediator will have to picked.
Source: Africafeeds.com
