ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia said Wednesday it would not be deterred from impounding water at its Nile mega-dam, despite a persistent impasse with downstream countries worried about their water supply.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011.
Downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its electrification and development.
The latest round of talks concluded Tuesday in Kinshasa with no resolution to long-running disputes over how the dam will be operated.
But Ethiopian water minister Seleshi Bekele told a press conference Wednesday that Ethiopia would continue filling the dam’s massive reservoir during the upcoming rainy season, which normally begins in June or July.
“As construction progresses, filling takes place,” Seleshi said.
“We don’t deviate from that at all.”
The reservoir has a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters.
Filling began last year, with Ethiopia announcing in July 2020 it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cubic meters — enough to test the dam’s first two turbines, an important milestone on the way toward actually producing energy.
The goal is to impound an additional 13.5 billion cubic meters this year.
Egypt and Sudan wanted a trilateral agreement on the dam’s operations to be reached before reservoir filling began.
But Ethiopia says filling is a natural part of the dam’s construction, and is thus impossible to postpone.
Last year Sudan said the filling process caused water shortages including in the capital Khartoum.
Seleshi disputed this Wednesday but said Ethiopia had offered to share data with Sudan during filling this year, adding that officials “don’t want to be made accountable for problems that we haven’t created.”
He complained, though, that Sudan and Egypt spent most of the time in Kinshasa pushing for an elevated role in negotiations for observers South Africa, the United States and the European Union.
Ethiopia has rejected this, saying it would undermine the process headed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, the current chair of the African Union.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it expected talks to resume later this month.
Egypt has described them as the last chance to reach an agreement, after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said last week that the region faces “unimaginable instability” over the project.
Sudan’s foreign minister, Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, told reporters Tuesday that Ethiopia “threatens the people of the Nile basin, and Sudan directly.”
Seleshi on Wednesday played down the possibility that tensions over the dam would lead to conflict.
“This kind of thinking is unnecessary, and exaggerating this kind of thing doesn’t benefit any country,” he said.
Ethiopia to go on filling Nile mega-dam despite impasse: Minister
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Ethiopia to go on filling Nile mega-dam despite impasse: Minister
- The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011
EU urges Israel to halt NGO registration law, warns it puts aid for Gaza at risk
- Legislation could severely restrict ability of humanitarian groups to provide aid for civilians amid one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, officials say
- Without nongovernmental organizations ‘humanitarian aid cannot be delivered at the scale needed to prevent further loss of life in Gaza,’ European Council warns
NEW YORK CITY: The EU on Tuesday urged Israeli authorities not to implement in its current form a new law governing the registration of international nongovernmental organizations, warning it could jeopardize life-saving humanitarian operations in Gaza and the other occupied Palestinian territories.
In a joint statement, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, and Commissioners Hadja Lahbib and Dubravca Suica said the law could severely restrict the ability of international aid organizations to operate and deliver assistance to civilians amid one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The European Council highlighted the need for “rapid, safe and unimpeded” delivery of aid and warned that without nongovernmental organizations, “humanitarian aid cannot be delivered at the scale needed to prevent further loss of life in Gaza.”
The new law, adopted by the Israeli government after the introduction of new registration requirements in March 2025, obliges foreign humanitarian organizations to provide detailed information about their operations, including full lists of local and foreign staff, as a condition for registering to operate in Palestinian areas.
Dozens of aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, World Vision and Oxfam, face having their accreditation revoked or licenses suspended after failing to meet the new criteria by the Dec. 31 deadline that was set. Israeli authorities have said organizations that fail to meet the new requirements must cease all activities by March 1.
Critics say the rules risk undermining humanitarian principles and could endanger local staff. The Israeli measures drew international condemnation and warnings from UN agencies, which said international NGOs provide essential “humanitarian lifelines” in Gaza where they are delivering most of the healthcare, nutritional, water and sanitation services amid ongoing restrictions and closures of border crossings.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, UN agencies have said, with winter conditions compounding the suffering of displaced populations living in makeshift shelters that expose them to heavy rain, flooding and cold.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the territory have received emergency food, shelter and winter supplies, and while famine conditions have eased since the ceasefire agreement in October, acute food insecurity, malnutrition and damage to infrastructure continues to take a toll.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said recent heavy rains have flooded tents, damaged homes and put a strain on already limited water, sanitation and health services, underscoring the need for sustained and unimpeded aid access.
The EU statement comes after the European Council on Dec. 18 welcomed a UN Security Council resolution for the establishment of a peace-building and stabilization force in Gaza, and urged all parties to implement it fully and in line with the principles of international law.
