Ethiopia, Sudan reportedly looking to amend 2015 Declaration of Principles on GERD

Ethiopia and Sudan are reportedly working to amend the Declaration of Principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which they signed with Egypt in 2015. The proposed amendments would allow Ethiopia to begin filling dam reservoirs before there is consensus over the environmental impact studies, an unnamed source from the Egyptian side tells Al Ahram. Sudan and Ethiopia reportedly asked Egypt to sign an agreement to that effect during the last round of talks, as Ethiopia wants to press ahead with filling the dam’s reservoirs next year, the source alleges. Trilateral talks on the dam had reached a stalemate last month when Sudan and Ethiopia refused to ratify the results of the impact study on the dam, which found that the GERD would indeed be detrimental to Egypt. Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Aati had said at the time that Ethiopia and Sudan requested to amend “critical areas” of the environmental impact studies on the dam.