Egypt announced on Wednesday evening that negotiations with Ethiopia over the Renaissance Dam had ended, because Addis Ababa had been “intransigent” and rejected all proposals and solutions. A statement by the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel Aty, announced the abrupt close to the talks.
The US$4.6 billion 6,000MW hydroelectric dam is to be built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan.
The building, filling and operations of the dam, which will transform power provision in the Nile Valley region, have been the subject of years-long, on-off talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. Africa Confidential reports that the last pullout from the talks happened in March, when Addis Ababa walked out of negotiations.
Ethiopian officials refer to the project as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Abdel Aty confirmed that the Renaissance Dam negotiations have made little progress, becauswe of Ethiopia’s stubborn stance on technical and legal points. Ethiopian officials refused to conclude a binding agreement with Egypt and Sudan, in accordance with international law, during a discussion of legal aspects of the project.
The Egyptian minister added that Ethiopian negotiators had adhered rigidly to a need to reach standards in guiding rules that could be amended separately. Addis Ababa also sought to obtain absolute right to implement projects in the upper waters of the Blue Nile.
The Ethiopians also objected to the inclusion of a binding legal mechanism on settlement of disputes over the Renaissance Dam agreement, Abdel Aty said.
He also reported that Ethiopia objected to incorporating in the accord effective measures to cope with drought.
On Friday 19 June, Egypt called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to start talks on project again.
Ethiopia says it plans to start filling the dam in July, regardless of whether a deal with Egypt is reached or not.
