MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2020) Including South Sudan and Uganda as Nile Basin countries in the stalled trilateral talks over the Grand Renaissance Dam could help revive the negotiations, South Sudan's ambassador to Russia, Chol Tong Mayay Jang, told Sputnik.
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads over Addis Ababa's seminal dam project that seeks to produce abundant energy and irrigation control by damming the Blue Nile, the Nile River's main tributary. Multiple rounds of trilateral talks have yielded little results and have seen downstream Sudan and Egypt grow closer over their antagonism to the project, including conducting joint military drills.
"The Nile basin countries could be really of help to be involved [in Ethiopia-Sudan-Egypt talks] but they have not invited us. South Sudan cannot just invite itself, but it would have been good if South Sudan and Uganda could be there. These other parties could bring an input and a breakthrough, to mediate between the parties, but it is all the issue of trust," the ambassador told Sputnik in an interview in Moscow.
The ambassador added that lack of trust between the parties presents an issue for the talks and that all sides can benefit if they worked in tandem.
"The whole thing that is happening between Egypt and Ethiopia is an issue of trust. Egypt doesn't trust Ethiopia. It is not the issue that the dam is really going to harm Egypt ... It's the fear of Egypt � what will happen during the dry season. Will Ethiopia be able to release the quantity of water Egypt is in need of or not? This is the issue and this is what the three parties are unable to agree on to be put in legal terms," the diplomat posited.
The ambassador argued that Ethiopia could help with Sudan's growing flood problem, which devastated the country earlier this year, by regulating volumes of water flow during the Nile's flooding season.
South Sudan, as the rest of the region, would greatly benefit from the abundant cheap energy the dam would produce since electrification is in great demand for development, the diplomat added.
Uganda and South Sudan lay upstream the White Nile, the river's lesser tributary which sources from Lake Victoria. The White Nile and Blue Nile meet in Sudanese capital Khartoum.
