Khartoum,
Thursday June 18 2020
Sudan on Wednesday proposed that the heads of state of the three countries involved in the spat over the use of the Nile waters directly handle the disagreement to provide a lasting political solution.
Khartoum said the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia and the mode of filling it should be directly handled by the top leadership of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
Hisham Kahin, a member of the Sudanese Legal Committee in the GERD negotiations, said Addis Ababa had withdrawn its commitment to some of the legal aspects earlier agreed upon, leaving a solution to the spat uncertain.
“Ethiopia retracted its legal commitment and converted it to non-binding guidelines that could be modified, and this is considered dangerous and affects the agreement,” Hisham said in Khartoum.
This, officials in Khartoum argue, could take back some gains made in earlier agreements.
Sudan has been proposing the resumption of talks over the filling of what will be Africa’s largest hydropower station, even though Ethiopia said it would start refilling the reservoir from next month.
A statement issued by the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation said there had been “conceptual differences” between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on a number of issues related to the Renaissance Dam.
The key issues include the extent of the obligatory agreement, how to resolve disputes as well as linking this agreement to other previous pacts.
Sudan says the current agreement is supposed to address the filling and operation of the dam, and not the sharing of water among the three countries.
Khartoum hopes that a meeting for the three heads of state could help reach a political consensus. Sudanese Minister for Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas said on Wednesday Khartoum stands for fair and reasonable use of the water without harming other countries.
The Nile, the world’s longest river, is a lifeline to communities in Sudan and Egypt. But Ethiopia, which is the source of more than 80 per cent of the water, has argued it retains sovereign right to utilise the resources.
Ethiopia and other Nile basin countries have argued that Egypt and Sudan are beneficiaries of an archaic treaty that gives the two countries the largest chunk of the water.
The Ethiopian dam could produce up to 6.4GW of electricity when fully functional, enough to power the whole of Ethiopia and export to neighbouring countries.
The bone of contention from Egypt and Sudan has been whether the dam reservoir would reduce the amount of water reaching the two countries.
Previous discussions on this matter, facilitated by the US Treasury and the World Bank, yielded no deal.
However, Washington put forward a draft agreement which Cairo signed. Ethiopia and Sudan did not.
Ethiopia later announced it would start filling the dam from next month.
