Sudan: at the Roseires dam, fears for the safety and the proper functioning of the installations [1/3]

Audio 02:35

The Roseires dam was built in 1966. It is located just 120 kilometers downstream from the Renaissance dam.

© RFI / Abdulmonam Eassa

By: Eliott Brachet

6 mins

Tension is mounting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia as the latter is determined to begin in July the second phase of filling the Great Renaissance Dam (GERD) upstream of the Blue Nile. In the absence of a binding agreement, Khartoum and Cairo sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council denouncing a unilateral decision that would endanger "

peace and stability in the region.

".

Sudan, on the front line, fears for the safety and proper functioning of its own hydroelectric facilities.

And in particular those of the Roseires dam, across the Blue Nile, in the south-east of the country, which is located barely a hundred kilometers downstream from the Ethiopian dam.

Without the exchange of hydrological information, the Sudanese teams in Roseires are in doubt.

Publicity

From our special correspondent in the Blue Nile,

Millions of cubic meters of water rush into the turbines of the Roseires dam every day.

In addition to electricity, its immense 105-kilometer-long reservoir supplies water to agricultural projects and drinking water stations to the capital.

Director Abdallah Abdelrahman does not hide his concern. “

We have no information on what will happen to us. There will be 74 billion cubic meters of water that will be stored up there, in Ethiopia, and we don't know how much water will pass through here, or when, or how. The variations in the water that will be discharged will have an impact on our facilities. We need upstream hydrological information. How much will they retain? How much will they release? So that we can anticipate here in Roseires,

”he said.

Ethiopia shut down its dam overnight last year in July.

While the second phase of filling is imminent, Sudanese engineers have therefore taken their precaution.

This year we didn't release as much water as we should have.

We decided to delay the opening of our valves for a month to retain water.

We adapt in anticipation of the complications associated with filling the Renaissance dam

, ”adds Abdallah Abdelrahman.

Stalled negotiations

Sudan has always been rather favorable to the Ethiopian project. In the long term, it would allow it to obtain inexpensive electricity, but also to control its water resources and avoid severe flooding. But in the short term, Khartoum fears for its security if Addis Ababa does not commit to sharing its technical information.

Mustafa al-Zubair is part of the Sudanese negotiating team which has just proposed a partial agreement. For him, “ 

If there was the political will, they could give us this information very quickly. We could have signed an agreement a long time ago. Today Ethiopia faces internal challenges, but so do we. We therefore proposed a partial agreement so as not to start from scratch, but we set our conditions. This agreement must be binding, otherwise it is useless

”, says Mustafa al-Zubair

According to the Sudanese Irrigation Ministry, 90% of the technical issues have already been settled in previous negotiations.

But Ethiopia refuses to commit to it on paper.

Negotiations have stalled, raising fears of an escalation in the region as Khartoum draws ever closer to Egypt. 

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  • Egypt

  • Sudan

  • Ethiopia