Ethiopia Dam Reservoir on River Nile filling up as talks with Egypt & Sudan break down

Ethiopia has recently confirmed that that reservoir located behind its disputed Grand Renaissance Dam on River Nile has started filling with water. According to reports, Ethiopian Water minister Seleshi Bekele confirmed that reservoir was filling up after satellite ims of dam showed that water level is rising.

Talks have yielded results

As per reports, Ethiopian Water Minister’s confirmation comes only a day after talks between three countries Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan that rely on Nile ended without agreement. Egypt and Sudan are countries that are located downstream from dam and fear that  dam will greatly reduce ir access to water from Nile river.

According to reports, negotiations between countries have been going on for years with concrete outcome, tensions between countries have only increased as dam neared completion. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry h previously remarked that diverting water from Nile river into reservoir without an agreement in place to protect downstream communities would result in heightened tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia that are both US allies.

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Experts have predicted that in first year, Nile dam will be able to retain 4.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water which will fill dam up to lowest height of wall. This will allow Ethiopia to test first set of turbines in dam. Ethiopia has claimed that it will take five to seven years for Grand Renaissance dam to fill to its maximum capacity and it is estimated that lake which shall be created as a result will stretch back 250 kilometres.

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Re: Egypt Urges UN To Stop Ethiopia Filling Nile Dam 

While this may be good and exciting news for Ethiopia, news of reservoir filling is worrying for Egypt. Egypt believes that in years that it will take for dam to be fully filled, country will t be guaranteed a specific volume of water like in past. Egypt is concerned about instances of prolonged drought and wher Ethiopia will release water in those circumstances.