A State Department official updated the Senate on Thursday on the dispute surrounding Ethiopia’s Nile River dam. 

Robert Godec, the acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and Sarah Charles from the United States Agency for International Development, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region. 

The discussion at the hearing also touched on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Ethiopia began filling the mega dam on the Blue Nile River near the Sudanese border last year, and plans to fill it further this year, particularly in July during east Africa’s rainy season. Ethiopia wants the dam to provide electricity to its population of more than 110 million and alleviate poverty. The downstream nations Egypt and Sudan believe filling the dam sans an agreement could dangerously lower the Nile’s water levels in their countries. African Union-led mediation efforts have so far failed to yield a deal. 

Godec said US policy is to support a “two-stage process” on the dam. First, the United States supports “some sort of agreement around the immediate concern about the immediately filling that would be likely to happen in July.” There should then be a second deal that “provides a longer term solution around the water and its use and the dam,” he said at the hearing.