Ethiopia has announced that it has completed the fourth and final phase of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, despite the opposition of Egypt and Sudan to its unilateral action.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed posted on his official account on X that this was the last stage in filling the controversial dam, without specifying the amount of water that was stored or what it meant by the final stage. However, he urged his people to continue supporting the project.
An Egyptian expert, Abbas Sharaky, a professor of geology and water resources at Cairo University, questioned the Ethiopian statements, saying that if this was the final stage, then the dam might have only reached a capacity of 41 billion cubic meters of water, instead of the 74 billion cubic meters that Ethiopia was aiming for.
Sharaky wrote on his Facebook page that he expected more stages of filling until Ethiopia achieved its target of 74 billion cubic meters.
On August 27, representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed the negotiations over the dam in Cairo, with the participation of the water and irrigation ministers from the three countries. However, the meeting did not result in any progress in reaching an agreement among the parties, due to Ethiopia’s insistence on unilateral actions and rejecting a legally binding deal.
