Oh, This Will End Well: Ethiopia Starts Filling Blue Nile Dam; Egypt Will React "Firmly"
Ethiopia has allowed a controversial dam built across the headwaters of the Nile to fill with rain water, raising tensions with Egypt and Sudan. The huge hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile, known as the Grand Renaissance dam, is at the centre of Ethiopia’s plan to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, but Egypt fears already limited Nile waters, on which its population of more than 100 million people depends, might be restricted.
“The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s water minister, said on Wednesday. He denied that Ethiopia had decided to begin the process of filling the dam, but confirmed analysis of recent satellite images that showed the reservoir swelling.
Ahmed Hafez, the spokesman for Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs, said his country “requests urgent official clarification from the Ethiopian government”, on whether filling the dam had officially begun. “Egypt continues to follow developments raised by the media on this issue,” he added.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, told the Alghad TV channel days earlier that any “significant harm” to Egypt’s water security by the dam constituted “a red line”. He said Egyptian authorities would react “firmly”, as “significant harm is illegitimate under international law”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/15/tensions-mount-as-ethiopia-allows-dam-across-nile-headwaters-to-fill
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