The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan
agreed on Wednesday to work toward resolving their dispute over the filling and
operation of a massive dam project in Ethiopia by Jan. 15, 2020, the US
Treasury said.
In a joint statement released after US Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin hosted
talks to work out differences over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the
ministers said they would attend further meetings in Washington on December 9
and January 13 to assess progress in their negotiations.
“The ministers reaffirmed their joint
commitment to reach a comprehensive, cooperative, adaptive, sustainable, and
mutually beneficial agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam and to establish a clear process for fulfilling that commitment
in accordance with the 2015 Declaration of Principles,” the ministers,
Mnuchin and World Bank President David
Malpass said in the statement.
Egypt fears the filling of the dam reservoir on the
Blue Nile tributary will restrict already scarce supplies of water from the
Nile, on which the country is almost entirely dependent. Sudan is also
downriver from the project.
Ethiopia says the hydroelectric dam, which will be
Africa’s largest, is crucial to its economic development.
Water ministers of the three countries will hold
four meetings in Washington, attended by the Treasury and World Bank, according
to the joint statement.
“If an agreement is not reached by January 15,
2020, the foreign ministers agree that Article 10 of the 2015 Declaration of
Principles will be invoked,” the statement said.
Such a move would require an international mediator
to help resolve the dispute.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said a meeting that he held with the Egyptian,
Ethiopian and Sudanese delegations “went well.”
In their joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three African countries “reaffirmed the significance of the Nile to the development of the people of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, the importance of transboundary cooperation, and their shared interest in concluding an agreement.” http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/egypt-ethiopia-sudan-to-try-to-resolve-dam-dispute-by-january-15-2019-11-07
