Taking advantage of Egypt's focus on the war in Gaza and Sudan, Ethiopia announced a new measure regarding the Grand Renaissance Dam, paving the way for the start of the fifth filling. Satellite images captured yesterday showed that Ethiopia has begun the process of raising the dam through the middle passage and pouring concrete after it was drained. The images also revealed the presence of two excavators operating for the first time above the middle passage, possibly for the purpose of making test pits or connections with the new concrete.
For his part, Egyptian expert Abbas Sharaki confirmed that the water flow above the middle passage of the dam has stopped, as the passage has completely dried out following the opening of the floodgates and the failure of the turbines. He indicated that water reserves in the dam's reservoir have decreased by more than one billion cubic meters, bringing the total storage to currently less than 40 billion cubic meters.
This Ethiopian action follows shortly after the failure of the fourth round of negotiations between the three countries regarding the dam, where the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced that the meeting concluded without results, due to the continued Ethiopian positions that have rejected for years any technical or legal middle-ground solutions that would secure the interests of all three countries. The ministry mentioned that it is now clear that the Ethiopian side is determined to continue exploiting the negotiating cover to enforce the realities on the ground, negotiating to extract a certificate of approval from the upstream countries for absolute control over the Blue Nile, separate from international law. It confirmed that it will closely monitor the filling and operation of the Grand Renaissance Dam, and that Egypt retains its rights as guaranteed by international agreements to defend its water and national security in case it is harmed.
