Ethiopia Dam Reservoir on River Nile filling up as talks with Egypt & Sudan break down

Ethiopia has recently confirmed that that the reservoir located behind its disputed Grand Renaissance Dam on the River Nile has started filling with water. According to reports, Ethiopian Water minister Seleshi Bekele confirmed that the reservoir was filling up after satellite images of the dam showed that the water level is rising.

Talks have yielded no results

As per reports, the Ethiopian Water Minister’s confirmation comes only a day after talks between the three countries Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan that rely on the Nile ended without agreement. Egypt and Sudan are countries that are located downstream from the dam and fear that the dam will greatly reduce their access to water from the Nile river.

According to reports, negotiations between the countries have been going on for years with no concrete outcome, tensions between the countries have only increased as the dam neared completion. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had previously remarked that diverting water from the Nile river into the reservoir without an agreement in place to protect the downstream communities would result in heightened tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia that are both US allies.

Read: Nile States End Talks On Africa's Largest Dam With No Deal

Read: Egypt, Ethiopia And Sudan Hope For Nile Dam Deal In Coming Weeks 

Experts have predicted that in the first year, the Nile dam will be able to retain 4.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water which will fill the dam up to the lowest height of the wall. This will allow Ethiopia to test the first set of turbines in the dam. Ethiopia has claimed that it will take five to seven years for the Grand Renaissance dam to fill to its maximum capacity and it is estimated that the lake which shall be created as a result will stretch back 250 kilometres.

Read: Sudan Warns Window Closing In Nile Dam Dispute, Asks UN Help 

Read: Egypt Urges UN To Stop Ethiopia Filling Nile Dam 

While this may be good and exciting news for Ethiopia, the news of the reservoir filling is worrying for Egypt. Egypt believes that in the years that it will take for the dam to be fully filled, the country will not be guaranteed a specific volume of water like in the past. Egypt is concerned about the instances of prolonged drought and whether Ethiopia will release water in those circumstances.