Egypt held the second of four of talks to reach an agreement on the rules of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The meetings between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan’s water ministry officials will take place from 2-3 December, the Egyptian irrigation ministry announced.
The Egyptian Spokesperson of Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohammed Sebaey was quoted saying, “Monday and Tuesday’s meetings are a completion of Ethiopia’s meeting on filling and the operations of the GERD, which saw proposals on the filling and operations of the dam pushed forward.”
The four rounds of talks are held as an agreement brokered by the United States where the three countries, in addition to representatives from US Secretary of the Treasury and the World Bank, met in November to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The meetings are meant to reach an agreement by 15 January 2020 between the three countries, under the auspices of finally reaching a compromise on the timeframe of filling and operating the dam.
The third meeting is to be held in Sudan late in December, while Ethiopia is to host the fourth meeting early in January.
Although Egypt did not provide information about the outcomes of the first meeting, the Sudanese Minister of Water Resources Yasser Abbas said that the three countries have agreed on “almost a seven-year period for filling the reservoir of the GERD.”
Commenting on Sudanese statement, Sebaey told Daily News Egypt that agreements over the period of filling the reservoir have yet to be reached.
“The past meeting on the issue did not discuss this point, but the three countries have agreed that filling the reservoir will be according to the hydrology of the Blue Nile,” he explained.
