Ethiopia announces the completion of the third phase of filling the Renaissance Dam

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is the largest of its kind in Africa.

Reuters

Ethiopia has completed the third stage of filling the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, according to what Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced, despite the protests of my downstream countries, Sudan and Egypt.

"What you see behind me is the complete third filling," Abiy said in a televised speech from the site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the northwest of the country, which is the largest of its kind in Africa.

And the water level in the tank has reached 600 meters, which is 25 meters more than it was at the end of the second stage of filling in the same period last year, according to Abyei.

In a veiled response to the criticisms of Egypt and Sudan, the Ethiopian Prime Minister said that “the Nile is a gift that God has bestowed upon us so that Ethiopians can benefit from it,” criticizing “those who do not bear the responsibilities entrusted to them.”

Both Egypt and Sudan repeatedly demanded from Ethiopia to stop filling the dam, pending an agreement between the three parties on the issue and the mechanisms for operating the dam.

The two countries stress that the Grand Dam, which is the largest in Africa, with a declared capacity of more than 5,000 megawatts and a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, will harm their water supplies.

At the end of July, Egypt protested to the UN Security Council against Ethiopia’s plans to continue filling the Renaissance Dam “unilaterally” during the rainy season since July 2020 without an agreement with the three countries concerned.

And last Thursday, Abyei gave the green light to operate a second turbine out of 13 planned for the Grand Renaissance Dam, which is expected to double the amount of electricity produced by Ethiopia.

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