Ethiopia announced Friday that it had completed the third filling of its Blue Nile mega-dam, a new milestone that could heighten tensions with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan.

The news comes just a day after Ethiopia announced the start of electricity production from the second turbine at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the country's northwest.

"Today as you see behind me, the third filling is complete," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said from the dam site in images broadcast on state television.

"The Nile is a gift of God given to us for Ethiopians to make use of it, “he added.

The massive $4.2 billion dam, which is expected to be Africa's largest hydroelectric scheme, has been at the center of a regional dispute since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.

What do you need to know?

Despite African Union-sponsored talks, Ethiopia and its downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan have yet to reach an agreement on the GERD's operations.

Because of their reliance on Nile waters, Cairo and Khartoum see it as a threat.

However, Ethiopia sees it as critical to the electrification and development of Africa's second most populous country.

It was one of Africa's fastest-growing economies until November 2020, when war broke out in northern Ethiopia between federal government forces and Tigray People's Liberation Front.

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Egypt and Sudan had no immediate reaction to Friday's developments.

However, Egypt, an arid country that relies on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, protested to the UN Security Council last month that the third filling was underway.

Nonetheless, Abiy sought to reassure Egypt and Sudan about the dam's impact.

"When we set out to build a dam on the Nile, we said from the beginning that we did not want to make the river our own," he said on Twitter.  

"We hope that just like Ethiopia, the other gifted nations of the Nile, Sudan, and Egypt, will get to utilize their share."  

On Thursday, he called for talks to reach an agreement on the dam, but he insisted that the third filling was not causing any water shortages downstream.

A look back

The GERD's vast reservoir was filled in 2020, and it now holds 22 billion cubic meters of water out of a total capacity of 74 billion.

"Compared to last year, we have reached 600 meters which is 25 meters higher than the previous filling," Abiy said Friday.

It is worth noting that Ethiopia started producing electricity from the GERD in February. The two operational turbines, out of a total of 13, can currently generate 750 megawatts of electricity.

It is expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts in the end, more than doubling Ethiopia's current output.

On his account, Project manager Kifle Horo revealed Thursday that the dam was now more than 83 percent complete and that the goal was for it to be finished in the next two and a half years.

The structure is 145 meters (475 feet) high and 1.8 kilometers long, straddling a Nile tributary in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of northwestern Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border.

The project was launched by Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012.