Ethiopia and Egypt can’t Agree on Nile Water Usage
The water ministers of Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan met in Khartoum on 4-5 October in an effort to agree on the timetable for filling the reservoir on the Blue Nile behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is 60 percent finished. The meeting apparently ended without any agreement. The main sticking point is the amount of time that it will take to fill the reservoir behind the hydropower dam as this will interrupt the flow of water that eventually reaches Egypt. There must also be agreement on how much water is released during the fill period. Egypt wants a longer fill period, Ethiopia a shorter period. Once the reservoir is filled, the river should flow normally, providing Ethiopia with power and Egypt with about the same amount of water that it has received over the ages, depending on annual rainfall in the Blue Nile catchment basin.
