The Water Ministers of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have been meeting in Addis Ababa on Friday to thrash out the technical details of a controversial dam being built on the River Nile.
The three countries have reached a consensus to continue the trilateral technical discussions on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as a follow-up to a meeting hosted by the United States a week ago.
They agreed to hold four technical governmental meetings at the level of Water ministers to which the World Bank and the United States will attend as observers.
The ministers also agreed to work toward the completion of an agreement by January 15, 2020 and hold two meetings in Washington on December 9 and January 13, 2020 to assess and support progress.
Dr Seleshi Bekele, Ehiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy earlier this week announced the completion construction work on the saddle dam of the hydroelectric power project.
The completion of the 50m high and 5.2km long concrete faced rockfill dam (CRFD) is an important milestone for the project, said the minister.
The ancillary work to the CFRD such as grouting and finishing works on audits will be soon finalized, the minister said on Twitter.
The construction of GERD is over 68 percent complete according to the Ethiopian government.
Ethiopia envisaged finalizing the project, which is being built in Benishangul Gumuz State by 2023.
It will be the largest dam in Africa.
MG/as/APA