The African Union (AU) is due to hold a mini-summit to discuss contentious mega-dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile River.
The ambitious project has triggered a diplomatic standoff with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan.
The multibillion-dollar Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a source of friction in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the giant project in 2011, with multiple rounds of tripartite talks ending in deadlock.
Leaders from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan are expected to take part, as well as officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Mali.
Other exploits to be discussed is the construction of the Gilgel Gibe dam that has choked off Lake Turkana’s fish supply and water levels.
Local and international environmental groups have cited major negative impacts of the dam and have criticized the project’s environmental and social impact assessment as insufficient.
A major decrease in river flow downstream will cause a serious reduction of inflow to Kenya’s Lake Turkana, which receives 90 percent of its waters from the river.
According to the ARWG report, these changes will destroy the survival means of at least 200,000 pastoralists, flood-dependent agriculturalists and fishers along the Omo River 300,000 pastoralists and fishers around the shores of Lake Turkana.
