The Ethiopian authorities announced, on Tuesday, that the construction work of the Renaissance Dam is proceeding in full swing, the day after the Sudanese Minister of Irrigation Yasser Abbas warned of the continuation of what he called unilateral measures to fill the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam for the second year.
His counterpart, the Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bakli, said on the sidelines of a visit to the construction site of the dam to assess the progress of the construction process, that the construction of the Renaissance Dam is taking place as planned, and the construction status is well underway, according to the official Ethiopian News Agency.
Bagli added that the support of the Ethiopians at home and abroad for the Renaissance Dam is at its best.
The Ethiopian minister's statements come after a Sudanese warning issued by the Minister of Irrigation, in which he confirmed that the continuation of filling the Renaissance Dam without signing a tripartite agreement or exchanging information about it would harm the safety of the operation of the Sudanese Roseires Dam (overlooking the Blue Nile and close to the Renaissance Dam).
Sudanese-European talks,
and Abbas discussed Monday with the head of the European Union mission in Khartoum, Robert Van Dool, how to move the stalled Renaissance Dam negotiations, to reach a peaceful solution acceptable to Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa.
According to a statement by the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation, the talks focused on explaining the progress of the negotiations and the proposals made by Khartoum to push the talks by giving the African Union experts a greater role, without mentioning the results of those consultations.
On January 10, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced, in a statement, that the meeting with Ethiopia had failed to make any progress on how to resume negotiations and the procedural aspects related to managing the negotiation process.
On the other hand, the Sudanese authorities announced, on the 18th of the same month, that they discussed alternative options (which they did not clarify) due to the stalled negotiations on the dam, which have been under the auspices of the Union for months, rejecting the second filling of the dam next July without reaching an agreement.
For about 10 years, the three countries have been engaged in stalled negotiations regarding agreement on the rules for building and filling the dam, as Addis Ababa insists on completing the filling even without reaching an agreement on it with Cairo and Khartoum.
Meanwhile, Egypt and Sudan (the two downstream countries) insist on the need to first reach a tripartite agreement, to ensure that their annual share of the Nile water is not affected, which amounts to 55.5 billion landfill and the second 18.5 billion.