Minister of Irrigation leads delegation visiting Renaissance Dam

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Mon, 16 Oct 2017 - 10:49 GMT

BY

Mon, 16 Oct 2017 - 10:49 GMT

Renaissance Dam – File Photo

Renaissance Dam – File Photo

CAIRO – 16 October 2017: Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Ati is heading to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to participate in the ministerial meeting of the Tripartite Committee.

This meeting aims to follow up on the studies, recommended by the International Panel of Experts, regarding the effects of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile Basin States.

Abdel-Atti will head a technical delegation of ministers of water resources and irrigation of the Nile Basin States visiting to the location of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam's construction to check the technical construction details.

Since the beginning of the dam's construction in 2011, the upstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, opposed the technical studies of the dam as it would decrease their share in the Nile water resources by 55.5 billion cubic meters and 18.5 billion cubic meters respectively.

But, Ethiopia denies that other downstream countries will be adversely affected by the dam and the prospect of war was raised in 2013 and 2014.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi signed a tripartite joint cooperation agreement in Khartoum on March 23, 2015, between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The three countries held 14 rounds of consultation on resolving the disputes over the Renaissance Dam. However, these rounds failed to solve the dispute.

Consequently, the Nile Basin countries asked the French firm Artelia Group to join the French consulting group BRL Ingénierie in 2016 in studying the documents of the dam’s construction; assessing the hydrological, environmental, and economic impact of the mega project on the downstream countries.

Meanwhile, the uneasy truce between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan continues.

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