Hello im christine window welcome to africa its the to have your company this year is the 4000000000 dollar a day project that has a diplomatic dispute between egypt and ethiopia the construction off the grand ethiopian renesas on staff is nearly complete ethiopia expects to start filling it this year with water from the blue nile that 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 and out more about the diplomatic fallout in a moment but 1st our reporter traveled to the site of the mega projects. 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. Project is now well under way if europeans 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 do you but it has been a mechanical engineer here from the onset in 2011. The proposal is to store water so this water. Flows and. The start of one generates electricity and the project doesnt consume water or the water stored will pass through the turbine generating electricity and water as a means to them 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 exist has been working here for 5 years like many others he wants to see the dam completed as soon as possible im going to 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 be listened to and sure enough water supply for the dam a reservoir with a capacity of over 74000000000 cubic meters will be flooded and form an artificial lake. The water come out of the one. 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 utopia is not offering sufficient guarantees on water reserves in case of extended drought but some analysts say egypt is mainly flexing its muscles to underscore its power in the region its not. I think showing. Me. That you could be the person to do that if you know. It is good to have up to this to have the most students come to have. It down to come to us it is a significant hub you wouldnt even. Get to do the borders with almost 50 percent of the europeans still living without electricity the government is keen to have the dam operating at full capacity as soon as possible the 1st turbines are due to be operational by mits 2021 so if europe is Prime Minister has africas president settled on a post that intervene even though egypt had earlier washington to mediate on the match up Foreign Ministers from the 2 Countries Press a done a meeting in the u. S. Capitol today so why did made us so. To get involved as a 2nd negotiator. Always believes and when we approach which is. Egypt in the sudan and well follow the same truck in the country crist for president of posing as he is a good friend for was ethiopia and egypt also was incoming chair he can. Make a discussion between those parties for us to solve the issue peacefully my guest today is timothy called us hes an on resident fellow at the Tata Institute for middle east policy he joins us now from cairo welcome to day 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 each upon set period as long as possible to allow for water to reach it right so we now know that his Prime Minister went ahead and asa that for this president to negotiate this while washington is also mediating talks between the players which also includes sadat my question to you hey is it does president asked me not necessarily think that much will come out of the mediation by washington why go ahead and ask south africas president to 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 more preferable compromise in the final agreement right now the washington talks 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 charter tracie 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 ethiopia is being dishonest in that they propose something. Briefer as a little as 6 to 7 years the pentagon grateful. We have a prime the ethiopian plan is to add the ass made saying 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 issue is a fitting the stats to clarify Prime Minister ahmed said that if war came hed be ready as opposed to hed be ready to wage war himself. Came after some more bellicose language was being used in some a gypsy press. In september 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 matter personally at the reading your twitter feed youve got lots to say about they say where do you see things going with what the mediation of washington and now the South African president to i understand will be axing it hes 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 phil period 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 certainly a concern on the part of the egyptians hopefully the media and partly 69. 00 states and the world bank which is observing can provide some sort of support to ethiopia that offsets the cost of 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 on rights has had the public directly to that kind of a cow this thank you. The horn of africa is currently suffering its west infestation often look in decades the insects pose a major threat to fit security and the u. N. And National Governments in the region are warning that the problem could get much worse as the pain progresses. Clouds of locusts swarm across the countryside the insects consume plants in their path whether grazing land or crops thats a serious danger for the harvest. Innovation and potential to spread. To other counties. Unprecedented threat to Food Security and they feel hordes. In 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 but thats impossible in somalia because of the security situation can you say is a regional strategy is essential but unfortunately because of security some countries it has been difficult to fight and prevent. 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 not have found 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 devaneys africa you can 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. Of every 2 seconds the person is forced to flee their home. The consequences been disastrous our documentary series displaced depicts dramatic humanitarian crises from around the world. Forgetting we dont have time to think i didnt go to university to kill people. I mean a lot of people feel for their cars and their future so they seek refuge abroad but what will become a force to stay behind and simply battle my husband went to peru because of the crisis that the wanted if he hadnt gone there we would have died of hunger on a down. To sewage storage channel or 15. Hello and welcome to arts and culture and an exciting start to the week because its oscar season as 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 magine the candidates kennedy is the mask making mastermind behind the colorful translations of the universe 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 but tells an origin story of the villain of the batman comic books. The film also received 10 other oscar