Hello im conceived come to africa its the to have your company this here is the 4000000000. 00 dam project that has a diplomatic dispute between egypt and ethiopia the construction of the grand ethiopian. 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 fears 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 ethiopias grant renaissance is the biggest construction site in the country and africas largest hydroelectric power damn 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 double 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. Husband a mechanical engineer here from the onset in 2011 the proposal. To store water so the water. Flows and. The start of one generates electricity and the project doesnt consume water or the water stored will pass in the. Generating interest and water as a means to them again on each side of the river 2 powerhouses 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. 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 ensure enough water supply for the dam a reservoir with a capacity of over 72. A 1000000000 cubic meters will be flooded and form an artificial lake. 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 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 technically. The show. And the. Region. But. It is the. Most significant. Down to many if there is a significant how. To deal. With almost 50 percent of ethiopians still living without electricity the government is scheme to have the dam operating at full capacity as soon as possible the 1st turbines are due to be operational by mid 2021. So if you know peace Prime Minister has also africas president settled on the poles that intervene even though egypt had earlier washington to mediate on the matter now Foreign Ministers from the 2 countries plus a done a meeting of the u. S. Capitol today so why did made us sort of a pulse to get involved as a 2nd negotiator there to appear always believes and when we approach we is. In the sudan and were 40 the same truck in the cause it costs for president oh it was a. Good friend for was ethiopia and egypt also was incoming a huge cheer he can. Make a discussion between both parties sauce to solve the issue peacefully right my guest today is timothy called us hes in on resident fellow at the 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 stem the most pressing issue is the period of time that if you if you will use to fill the reservoir behind the down those faster they fill it the less water rule will flow out of us downstream to sudan and egypt and so egypt concept here as long as possible to allow for water to reach it right so we now know that ethiopias Prime Minister went ahead an os of africas president to negotiate this while washington is also mediating talks between the players which also includes the done my question so you say is it does president asked made 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 for haps 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 on goalie 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 with 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 a 6 to 7 years the pentagon grateful. We have a prime. Minister abbey asked made saying that hes ready to go to wall of of the status could could could this situation escalates to that point where theres a war between these 2 countries if theyre not able to to reach some kind of a settlement of compromise over the the issue is a fitting the stats. Well 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 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 mad atrocity at and reading your twitter feed youve got lots to say about the way do you see things clearly with what the mediation of washington and now the South African president i understand will be acting in his capacity as African Union che well my hope is for them to find a time line is responsive to changes in rainfall depending on the situation and that allows for the dam to be filled in as 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 fill 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 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 on our rights has had the public directly to that. Thank you. The horn of africa is currently suffering its worst infestation of locusts in decades the insects 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 pig progresses. Clouds of locals swarm across the countryside the insects consume plants in their path whether grazing land. Thats a serious danger for the harvest. And potential to spread. To other counties. And. To Food Security. 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 b 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. Some countries. To fight. Across the border in uganda the government also issued a sobering warning that. Just. The. Region. A single locus swarm can destroy crops that could treat 2 now half 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 africa you can catch all stories on our website and Facebook Page when even now with the more pictures of these hungry insects well see you next time its 5 finale. Bursts. Home of specious. Home words if you can. Get those are big changes and most start with small steps. Tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world. To use the country to boost Green Energy Solutions and play for station. Interactive content to choose the next generation of the took such action. News and channels available for people to take action and more determined to do something here for the next generation of global the environment series of global 3000 on d w and online. 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 author of looks at the moments in life that make us who we are. And the no region artists magine candidates kennedy is the mask making mastermind behind the colorful creation of the universe of. 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 nominee