CAIRO — The second meeting of the Ethiopian, Sudanese and Egyptian ministers of water, held in Cairo Dec. 2-3 in the presence of observers from the United States and the World Bank, did not reach conclusive results. The points of contention over the mechanism of filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being built on the Blue Nile remain unresolved. They agreed to hold a meeting in Washington, DC, on Dec. 6 to evaluate the achievements of the negotiations so far.

The second meeting was part of the roadmap that the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian foreign ministers agreed on in Washington Nov. 6 to solve pending technical issues regarding filling and operating the dam by Jan. 15.

Al-Monitor obtained exclusive information on the Egyptian vision and technical stand regarding filling and operating the GERD, as per rules and mechanisms that operate the Aswan Dam in Egypt. Accordingly, the GERD in Ethiopia and the Aswan Dam in Egypt would be operated based on the same hydraulic system that suits the nature of the Blue Nile.

A technical official who attended the meeting in Cairo revealed the main points of the Egyptian vision, saying, “Egypt has put scenarios for filling and operating the GERD based on key principles that cannot be ignored, such as adapting to hydrological conditions, the annual flow rate and the critical level of water in the Aswan Dam reservoir. The plan is to maintain safe rates of strategic water storage in the dam’s lake.”