Ethiopia’s next move on Nile dam may hinder negotiations

Ethiopia started concrete construction on the body of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in April, ahead of the third filling of the dam’s reservoir slated for July, amid the continued stalled negotiations with Egypt and Sudan.

On April 25, Egyptian media reports quoted unnamed sources and circulated satellite images as confirming that Addis Ababa started to elevate the middle corridor of the dam that is being built on the Blue Nile, after it drained this corridor in March to prepare it for new constructions.

This comes at a time when the two downstream countries — Egypt and Sudan — are demanding Addis Ababa to refrain from any unilateral measures with regard to filling or operating the dam’s lake, before concluding a binding agreement, for fear of seeing their water share of the Nile River shrink. Tripartite negotiations on this issue, held intermittently for a decade now, have so far failed.

In February, Ethiopia announced the operation of the dam’s first two turbines to generate electricity. Egypt labeled the move as yet another breach by Ethiopia of its obligations under the 2015 Declaration of Principles.