The African Union will on Tuesday hold a vestural meeting to deliberate on the progress made in the resolution of a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Addis Ababa has built on its share of the River Nile.
The virtual meeting of the AU Bureau of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government will be chaired by AU Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, also serving as the President of South Africa.
“The meeting will take place within the context of the AU’s efforts to strengthen the negotiations and to infuse new momentum towards the resolution of all the outstanding legal and technical matters, including (but not limited to) the issue of the future development on the Blue Nile upstream as well as the future dispute resolution mechanism,” the South African presidency said.
Ethiopia hopes the massive hydroelectric dam will make it Africa’s largest electricity exporter, but Cairo has long expressed fears that building the $5 billion dam will threaten water supplies that have fed Egypt’s agriculture and economy for thousands of years.
Sudan, which also largely depends on the Nile for water, has been caught between the competing interests.
The three countries have been locked in months of negotiations with little success. One of the biggest points of dispute revolves around the timeframe for filling up the dam.
Reports indicate that Ethiopia began filling up the dam last week.
