UN encourages new negotiations in dispute over Ethiopian dam

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) —  The U.N. Security Council is encouraging Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume negotiations on the contentious issue of water availability from the dam that the Ethiopians are building on the main tributary of the Nile River. A brief presidential statement approved Wednesday by all 15 council members says negotiations should resume at the invitation of the African Union’s chairperson “to finalize expeditiously the text of mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation of the (dam) within a reasonable time frame.” The dam is 80% complete and Egypt and Sudan contend it threatens 150 million people downstream. Ethiopia says the $5 billion dam is essential to make sure the vast majority of its people have electricity.