CAIRO - 16 July 2020: "Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation denied media reports on filling the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) before reaching a bidding agreement with the downstream countries (Egypt and Sudan)," announced the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.
"The Ethiopian Charge D’affaire in Sudan affirmed that his country did not start filling the dam’s reservoir, noting that due to the heavy rainfall, plenty of water accumulated naturally near the dam’s reservoir," the Sudanese statement said.
السودان #وزارة_الخارجية |١-أبلغت وزارة الخارجية الإثيوبية وزارة الخارجية السودانية عدم صِحة خبر شروع السلطات الإثيوبية في ملء سد النهضة، وأوضحت أن وزير الموارد المائية والري الإثيوبي لم يدلِ بالتصريحات التي نُسبت إليه أمس، ببدء عملية ملء السد. pic.twitter.com/3AE6lHy0b7
On Wednesday, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), the state-owned TV, reported that Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Seleshi Bekele announced the start of filling the dam with 4.9 billion cubic meters of water within the first stage of the filling process. However, the EBC apologized for “misinterpreting” this news.
Few hours after the Ethiopian media reports were circulated, Egypt has requested an “urgent official clarification” from the Ethiopian government, saying “Egypt continues to follow up on the developments circulated by the media around this issue,” according to Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources affirmed that the Blue River water level at the border with Ethiopia has been declining by 90 million cubic meters daily.
“Some local and international media outlets reported information and satellite images indicating that Ethiopia has started filling the Renaissance Dam with water before reaching a deal on the first [phase] of filling and the operation,” the Sudanese ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources asked its concerned bodies to measure the level of the Blue river to investigate the accuracy of such information. It became crystal clear, through measuring the water level at Al-Daim border station with Ethiopia, that there is a decline in the water level equivalent to 90 million cubic meters daily and that confirms the closure of Renaissance Dam’s gates,” the statement read.
The Ethiopian perplexing remarks came shortly after announcing that the negotiations on the GERD between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia did not achieve any progress or an agreement.
Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Monday that the negotiations on GERD between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia will continue as per the African Union vision; however, the parties have not yet reached an agreement.
He said in press statements that the current negotiations did not achieve any progress or an agreement with the Ethiopian part.
Shoukry added that a report shall be submitted to the African Union, then a meeting between the presidents of the three countries shall be held to realize an agreement.
The Sudanese government said Tuesday that the country submitted a report on the GERD to the African Union after the end of the negotiations between the ministers of irrigation of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopian.
The report mentioned that not much progress was achieved during the negotiations that lasted for 11 days.
Since 2014, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have entered into negotiations on the building of the dam to avoid any possible threats on the Nile downstream countries. The latest round of talks, which convened early June, reached a stalemate, ahead of the Ethiopian unilateral act of deciding to fill the dam’s reservoir mid-July without reaching a final agreement with Egypt and Sudan.
Egypt previously decided to request the United Nations Security Council’s intervention in the dispute on Ethiopia’s massive dam, after Egypt had said several times that the two countries have reached a deadlock.
The conflict between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia dates back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building the dam; Egypt voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters]. Three years later, a series of tripartite talks between the two countries along with Sudan began to reach an agreement while Ethiopia continued the dam construction.
In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam.
In October 2019, Egypt blamed Addis Ababa for hindering a final agreement over a technical problem, calling for activating Article No. 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries could not find a solution to these disputes, they have to ask for mediation.
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