{{African Union (AU) has urged Egypt and Ethiopia to come together for talks with the hope of solving a bitter dispute over the sharing of Nile river waters triggered by an Ethiopian dam project.}}
The appeal by AU Commission chief, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, came after Egypt angrily warned that “all options are open” over Ethiopia’s diversion of a section of the Blue Nile for the dam.
“There should be discussions around these issues… aimed at having a win-win situation,” she said. “Both countries need the water,” she added.
Ethiopia has pledged to press ahead with construction of the $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euro) Grand Renaissance Dam, set to become Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam when completed, despite Egypt’s fury.
“If a single drop of the Nile is lost, our blood will be the alternative,” Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi warned on Monday.
“We are not warmongers, but we will never allow anyone to threaten our security.”
Egypt, which fears the project may diminish its water supply, said its “historic rights” to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959, which allow it 87 per cent of the Nile’s flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.
But a new deal was signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allowing them to work on river projects without Cairo’s prior agreement.
Talks between the two countries should focus on finding a solution “in a new context, not in the context of the colonial powers,” Dlamini-Zuma said without elaborating.
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