Hello im christine window welcome to news africa its the to have your company this year is the 4000000000 dollar a day project that has sparked a diplomatic disputes between egypt and ethiopia the construction off the grand ethiopian brynn a song stand is nearly complete ethiopia expects to start filling it this year with water from the blue nile egypt relies on the nile for 90 percent of its water supply and fear is it could have a shortage of water when ethiopia starts to fill the debt now more about the diplomatic fallout in a moment but 1st our reporter traveled to the site of the megaprojects. A concrete colossus 145 meters High Construction work covering a total of 11 square kilometers its poised to become the countrys biggest source of electricity is g. O. P. s make it a project is now well underway if your peers grant renaissance that is the biggest construction site in the country and africas largest hydroelectric paradigm it is almost 2 kilometers long and will produce more than 15000. 00 take out hour of electricity starting 2022 using the waters of the blue nile river every year the devil potentially provide power for tens of millions of ethiopian households and a significant part of the electricity will be sold to neighboring countries to complete the project in time 6000 employees are working around the clock often under the scorching sun in the hottest months temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees. Has been a mechanical engineer here from the onset in 2011. The proposal is to store water so the water. Flows and. The start of one generates electricity and the project doesnt consume whatever all the water stored will pass through the turbine generating interest and go to the ministry of again on each side of the river to power houses will host a total of 13 turbines the construction was delayed considerably over the years mainly because of corruption and mismanagement issues exhaust has been working here for 5 years like many others he wants to see the dam completed as soon as possible. A country has a problem of access to electricity so this project will be very beneficial for ethiopia and not only us also for other african countries that are going to give us a to ensure enough water supply for the dam a reservoir with a capacity of over 74000000000 cubic metres will be flooded and form an artificial lake. Covered with water. That has led to a diplomatic deadlock with egypt the last country downstream on the nile egypt fears that if the reservoir is filled up too quickly this will severely impact the flow of the river and thus egypts water supply ethiopia insists on having the reservoir filled within the next 7 years while egypt says ethiopia is not offering sufficient guarantees and water reserves in case of extend the drought but some analysts say egypt is mainly flexing its muscles to underscore its power in the region its not technically. I think. The. Region could be. In the. It is good to have up to this game of the most significant. Down to move it is a significant hub you wouldnt even get to do the borders with almost 50 percent of the european still living without electricity the government is keen to have the operating at full capacity as soon as possible the 1st turbines are due to be operational by mid 2021 so if you o. P. s Prime Minister has also africas president settled on a post that intervene even though egypt had earlier washington to mediate on the matter now Foreign Ministers from the 2 countries passed a done a meeting of the u. S. Capitol today so why did made us. To get involved as a 2nd negotiator. Always believes and when we approach which is. In the sudan we will follow the same truck in the critic is just for president of posing as he is a good friend for boys ethiopia and egypt also was incoming each year he can. Make a discussion between blows parties sauce to solve the issue peacefully my guest today is timothy called us hes in on resident fellow at the tardy institute for middle east policy he joins us now from cairo welcome to d. W. Africa lets start off with what is at the heart of this disagreement over the stab. The most pressing issue is the period of time that ethiopia will use to fill the reservoir behind the dam the faster they fill it the less water will flow out of us downstream to sudan and egypt and so egypt onset periods long as possible to allow for water to reach it right so we now know that ethiopias Prime Minister went ahead and asa that this president to negotiate this while washington is also mediating talks between at the planes which also includes the dad my question so you say is it does president ask not mr they think that much will come out of that the mediation by washington why go ahead and honest so that this president also come in and mediate i think i think both egypt and if you know if youre looking for leverage when they dont have any directly over one another and so the hope that perhaps Prime Minister ahmed spoke is that the South African president can help. Increase ethiopia standing in the talks while of course cairo has a long standing relationship with the americans and so theyre hoping that the americans will help them achieve a more preferable compromise in the final agreement right now the washington toltz all ongoing what can we expect from that well theyre scheduled to have to resolve everything in these talks by january 15th by wednesday if they fail to do so then they would have to move to arbitration based on the existing agreements between the 3 countries currently the rhetoric between ethiopia and egypt doesnt bode well the ethiopians have accused the egyptians of refusing to put forward a more reasonable timeline claiming that they wanted 12 to 21 years whereas the egyptians have dismissed and said that ethiopias being dishonest and that they proposed that they. Prefer as a little a 6 to 7 years the pentagon grateful. We have a prime the ethiopian Prime Minister abby asked made say that hes ready to go to war over the stand could could could this situation escalates to that point where theres a war between these 2 countries if theyre not able to reach some kind of a settlement of a compromise over the the issues affecting the stat to clarify Prime Minister ahmed said that if war came hed be ready as opposed to hed be ready to wage war himself it came after some more bellicose language was being used in some of gypsy press. In september the the fact of the matter is while a very unlikely scenario if there is no resolution in egypt does they do that if one of its most vital resources water is under threat its not beyond the realm of possibility they could consider a military option though that seems very distant and im confident theyre trying to avoid that. But its something that certainly is on the back of peoples minds but where do you see things going youve been looking at this met a close me up and reading your twitter feed youve got lots to say about this where do you see things going with with the mediation of washington and now the South African president to i understand will be axing in his capacity as African Union chair. Well my hope is for them to find a timeline is responsive to changes in rainfall depending on the situation and allows for the dam to be filled in a timely fashion of possible without damaging egypts arable land i think part of the problem is that its not just the water reaching egypt during the filth there is but if there is a significant decrease that is not that it also could permanently damage a lot of the land as its not absorbing enough water to maintain its fertility and thats actually a concern on the part of the egyptians hopefully the mediate party 69. 00 states and the world bank which is observing can provide some sort of support to ethiopia that offsets the cost of that delay such as support infrastructure further for the export of electricity which is part of the plan and thats quite quite costly infrastructure and ethiopia currently has expended a lot of its its wealth and its Capital Building to stand all right has had the public directly that some of the coldest thank you. The horn of africa is currently suffering its west infestation often look in decades the insects pose a major threat to Food Security and the u. N. And National Governments in the region are warning that the problem could get much worse as the pay progresses. Clouds of locusts warm across the countryside the veracious insects consume plants in their path whether grazing land. Thats a serious danger for the harvest. Innovation and potential to spread. To other counties force unprecedented bit to Food Security and they feed hordes in the country. The swarms have been coming to kenya for 2 weeks now local people have taken to Desperate Measures firing guns and even tear gas the un sounded the alarm for somalia and ethiopia in december now the swarms are threatening the entire region the f a o recommends pesticide spraying is the only effective control option thats impossible in somalia because of the security situation can you say is a regional strategy is essential. Unfortunately because of insecurity in some countries it has been difficult to fight and the question across the border in uganda the government also issued a sobering warning. Its. Been seen in the last of indias. Just. The. Region. A single locus swarm can destroy crops that could treat to know how 1000 people for a year meanwhile more insects are already hot ching on both sides of the red sea. And that is it for now from the 70s africa catch all stories on our website and Facebook Page 23 now with the more pictures of these hungry in states well see you next time its bad but out. Is a master of the art of confrontation this is no for the firm combat i mean youre going to be on the fly leaf undisputed champion of toast political talk softly trying to try to do you know theres a fire everybody understands except you enter the conflict zone and join Jim Sebastian as he holds the powerful to account this is a fix for your whichever way you like to spin the conflict zone to go for. Me take good personally us. With a little one story that makes the game so special. For all true fans. Become more than football long line of thought. Hello and welcome to arts and culture and an exciting start. So that week because its oscar season and the nominees well well talk about that in just a moment and also coming up. In our series 100 german must reads a literary gem from austrian often looks at the moments in life that make us who we are. And the norwegian artists imagine the candidates kennedy is the mask making mastermind behind the Colorful Creations of the universe of dogs of the. 2020 awards season is well underway and after the Golden Globes gave us a bit of a barometer last week suspense was high on monday for the Academy Award nominees and the lists were announced in the early hours l. A. Time and suffice it to say hollywood seems to be staying true to itself with a handful of films dominating most of the categories. Walking phoenix earned a nomination for best actor with his performance in joker a dark psycho thriller tells an origin story of the villain of the batman comic books but. The film also received 10 other oscar nomination