Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia agree on shared use of Nile

Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia reached a basis for an agreement on the sharing of Nile water last week.

“A full agreement has been reached between our three countries on the principles of the use of the eastern Nile Basin and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters on Friday morning. The document will be submitted to the heads of the three states for approval, he said.

The negotiations that started in Khartoum on Tuesday, focused on the construction resolving of the dispute about the Grand Renaissance Dam, being built by Addis Ababa. Egypt fears Ethiopia’s project will diminish its share of the river waters, and said in the past that it is opposed to any new project that disrupts the flow of the Nile. In several rounds of talks last week, Ethiopia maintained that the new hydro-electric project will have no effect on Sudan and Egypt downstream waters.

Karti hailed the agreement as “a new path in the relations of our three countries”, but did not provide further details. His Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukri, commented that the agreed principles marked “the beginning of more cooperation between our three countries”, and Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Tedros Adhanom said the deal would open “a new chapter between the three countries”.

Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May 2013, to build the 6,000 MW dam, which will be Africa’s largest when completed in 2017. The construction of the 1,780-metre-long and 145-metre high dam will cost $4.2 billion.

According to Cairo, the country’s 'historic rights' to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959, which allot 87 percent of the river’s flow to Egypt.

(AFP, Sudan Vision Daily)