Three African leaders are due to meet in Sudan to resolve a long-running dispute over the sharing of Nile waters and the building of Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam, in Ethiopia.
Sudan’s state-owned news agency says a deal will be signed by the leaders of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Egypt has opposed the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying it would worsen its water shortages.
Ethiopia says the dam will give it a fairer share of Nile waters.
Last year, Ethiopia’s parliament ratified a controversial treaty to replace colonial-era agreements that gave Egypt and Sudan the biggest share of the Nile’s water.
Egypt’s then-President Mohamed Morsi said he did not want war but he would not allow Egypt’s water supply to be endangered by the dam.
Mr Morsi’s successor, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has travelled to Sudan’s capital Khartoum for talks over the dam with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Halemariam Desalegn and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.
‘Veto power’
Egypt’s privately owned Al-Misri al-Yawm newspaper quoted unnamed officials on Sunday as saying that plans to sign a deal had been postponed, and Mr al-Sisi would push “Ethiopia to include a piece of legislation protecting Egypt’s rights” over the Nile.
However, Sudan’s Suna news agency said a large number of foreign delegates, including officials from the African Union and Arab League, were expected in Khartoum for the signing ceremony.
Ethiopia wants to replace a 1929 treaty written by Britain that awarded Egypt veto power over any project involving the Nile by upstream countries.
Ethiopia says the $4.7bn (£3.1bn) dam will eventually provide 6,000 megawatts of power.
Egypt was apparently caught by surprise when Ethiopia started diverting the Blue Nile – a tributary of the Nile – last year.
Ethiopia says the river will be slightly diverted but will then be able to follow its natural course.
Egyptian politicians were inadvertently heard on live TV last year, proposing military action over the dam.
Ethiopia has received strong backing from five other Nile-basin countries – Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi.
Source: BBC
