The latest tripartite talks on the controversial Ethiopian dam built along the Nile have collapsed after hours of discussions, Sudanese Foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandur said on Friday.
โThe Renaissance dam talks have failed to achieve any breakthrough,โ Mr Ghandour told journalists.
The foreign ministers and intelligence chiefs of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met in Khartoum on Thursday.
After nearly 17 hours of discussions, the parties failed to reach an agreement on issues concerning Addis Ababaโs ongoing construction of the dam on the Nile.
โWe discussed many areas of disagreements but in the end we failed to reach decisions regarding our differencesโ the top Sudanese diplomat said without revealing more details.
The latest round of discussions had been held after leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met in Addis Ababa last month and agreed to break the months-long impasse over the dam.
Ethiopia began building the $4 billion dam in 2012, but the mega project has triggered tensions primarily with Egypt as Cairo fears that once commissioned the dam will reduce water supplies from the Nile to Egypt.
Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has โhistoric rightsโ to the river, guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959.
Cairo argues that the treaties grant it 87 per cent of the Nileโs flow, as well as the power to veto upstream projects. It fears that any reduction of water supplies to the biggest Arab country will affect its agriculture.
Cairo is primarily concerned at the speed at which the damโs reservoir would be filled.
The Blue and the White Nile tributaries converge in Sudanโs capital Khartoum and from there run north through Egypt to the Mediterranean.
Initially Sudan too had concerns over the project, but in recent months has supported it, with experts saying that the dam will help regulate floods along Sudanโs share of the Nile.
Renaissance dam talks resumed after two years of suspension due to disagreements between Egypt and Ethiopia.
Hydro-electric power project
The Grand Renaissance Dam aims to produce 6,000 megawatts of hydro-electric power โ the equivalent of six nuclear-powered plants.
The dam was initially expected to be commissioned in 2017, but Ethiopian media reports say only about 60 per cent has so far been built.
Mr Ghandour also said that no new date had been fixed for the next round of talks.
Source: AFP/ Theeastafrican