Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt foreign ministers will meet today in the US to finalize an agreement on the filling and operation of Ethiopia's dam on the Nile, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The two-day meeting is expected to end tomorrow, January 29.

The Ethiopian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew, has Seleshi Bekele (Ph.D.), Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, along with water engineers and lawyers.

"This time we focus on reviewing the legal write up of the agreement on [the] filling [and] operation [of the GERD] that started in Khartoum last week. The draft was based on the already technically negotiated results, " Dr. Seleshi said in a tweet.

Included in the technical results are principles, filling stages, retained volumes of water in the dam, reservoir operation, drought, and its management, data exchange and coordination mechanisms, the Water, Irrigation, and Energy Minister went on to say.

The United States Secretary of the Treasury and the President of the World Bank (WB) will attend the meeting as observers.

During their previous meeting in Washington D.C. two weeks ago, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt agreed for the filling of the dam to be executed in successive stages, and for the fillings to take place during the rainy season, July and August, and sometimes in September as well, based on existing conditions.

Ethiopia intends to start filling the dam at the end of this year, and the filling process will take 4-7 years to complete.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, posed to be the largest dam in Africa, is over 70 percent complete and is scheduled for full completion by 2023.

Sources: Twitter Account of Dr. Seleshi Bekele Awulachew, FBC