According to officials, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have restarted their lengthy negotiations regarding the contentious dam that Ethiopia is building on the primary tributary of the Nile River.

The negotiations resume after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi stat last month that they hope to reach an agreement on the operation of approximately four months the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, the Blue and White Niles merge before continuing north through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

If the dam is operate without taking Egypt’s demands into account, it could have disastrous effects. It referre to it as an existential danger. The most populous nation in the Arab world, with more than 100 million inhabitants, depends nearly exclusively on the Nile for its water supply for agriculture. The source of about 85% of the river’s flow is Ethiopia.

The fresh round of negotiations announce in Cairo by the Egyptian Irrigation Ministry. Egypt wants a contract that legally binding governing how the enormous dam is run and fill, according to irrigation minister Hani Sewilam.

Egypt

Without going into further detail, Sewilam stated that there are numerous “technical and legal solutions” to the matter.

After the Ethiopian government started filling the dam’s reservoir before reaching an agreement, tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa grew.

Important concerns still remain, including how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in the event of a prolonged drought and how the three nations will settle any ensuing conflicts. During the project’s final phase, Ethiopia refused binding arbitration.

Ethiopia claims that the dam is necessary since the majority of its citizens lack access to energy.

In order to prevent flooding and safeguard its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile, Sudan wants Ethiopia to coordinate and share information on the dam’s operation. Just 10 kilometers (6 miles) separate the dam from the Sudanese border.

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