The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have agreed to hold a meeting in Washington next month to finalize an agreement to resolve the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built on the Nile River in Ethiopia, reported Reuters.
A joint statement issued by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday revealed that the meeting will be held on Monday, January 13.
The statement was issued after the foreign ministers and water ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had a meeting with World Bank President David Malpass and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday.
“The Ministers of Foreign Affairs look forward to reconvening in Washington, D.C. on January 13, 2020, to review the results of the upcoming technical meetings in Khartoum and Addis Ababa with the goal of finalizing an agreement,” the statement said.
As per the statement, the ministers will try to finalize rules and guidelines for the filling and operation of the dam, the definition of drought conditions, and drought mitigation measures in the upcoming meetings.
Ethiopia will undertake the technical rules related to the filling and operation of the dam, but all three countries will be able to adjust the rules and conditions in accordance with water conditions in any given year.
Egypt is concerned that the filling of the dam reservoir on the Blue Nile tributary will restrict its water supply water from the Nile, on which the country is almost entirely dependent. Ethiopia, on the other hand, claims the hydroelectric dam, which will be Africa’s largest, is crucial to its economic development.
Furthermore, Egypt wants Ethiopia to agree to release a minimum of 40 billion cubic metres of water from the dam annually.
Two more technical meetings will take place in the coming weeks.
