This comes as Ethiopian media on Wednesday claimed that the country has started filling the $4 billion dam, quoting the Water Minister as saying that “the construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand,” Reuters reported. Later on the same day, Ethiopia’s Water Minister Sileshi Bekele denied the media reports, saying to The Associated Press that heavy rains are the reason for what has been shown by satellite images as the swelling of the dam’s reservoir. This continues until overflow is triggered soon.”Amid reports of dam filling, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has requested an “urgent official clarification” from the Ethiopian government. Endorsing reports on dam filling, the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources affirmed that the Blue River water level at the border with Ethiopia declined by 90 million cubic meters daily. In his speech at the Security Council meeting on the dam, the Egyptian Foreign Minister denounced absence of guarantees on the safety of the Ethiopian dam on the downstream countries - Egypt and Sudan -.

Source: Egypt Today July 16, 2020 12:56 UTC