Egypt and Sudan hold discussions on Ethiopian dam

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

April 21, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Egyptian and Sudanese officials on Tuesday held closed door discussions on the controversial Ethiopia hydro-power plant project, which the horn of African country is building along the Nile River.

The planned Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project (AP)

According to media reports, Egypt’s minister of water resources and irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Atti and his Sudanese counterpart, Moataz Moussa held a meeting in Khartoum over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The two sides reportedly discussed their concerns on the potential impact of the massive dam project.

The meeting comes weeks after Ethiopia announced the construction of the multi-billion dollar project past the half-way mark, and prepares for an initial power generation.

Egypt, which has the historic treaty granting rights to veto any project upstream, had fiercely reacted when Ethiopia launched the construction of hydro-power dam in 2011.

Cairo, which relies almost exclusively on the Nile river resources for water consumption, argues that the construction of the dam project will disrupt the flow of the Nile and fears it would eventually diminish its water share.

The North African nation demanded that the Ethiopian government halts the construction of the hydro power project until an independent impact study, assuring that the dam will not significantly cut the water flow to its territory.

Ethiopia also accused Egypt of allegedly pressuring donors and international lenders against financing the project, insisting it would continue with or without external funds.

Addis Ababa and Cairo had previously been locked in a bitter war of words over the Nile dam after the latter considered other options including military actions to halt the dam which Ethiopia is building from own coffers.

The dispute further threatened an all-out war, but the two countries along with Sudan have later managed to engage a in a number of constructive meetings with the help of international panel of experts and consultancy firms.

The three Nile basin countries later agreed to continue cooperation to build trust pertaining the dam project.

Ethiopia, however, insists the power plant project is never intended to harm Egyptians, but was necessary for combating poverty, realization of development and prosperity across the region and thus should be taken as symbol of cooperation among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Tuesday’s meeting between the two water ministers was reportedly attended by Egyptian and Sudanese delegations to consult on ways how to tackle technical issues on the impact of the dam on downstream countries.

The technical discussions between Ethiopia Egypt and Sudan were called off since February when a tripartite committee, tasked to discuss issues regarding Nile dam, announced reaching a unanimous agreement on the proposal submitted by the two French consultancy firms on the dam’s potential impact on Sudan and Egypt.

Sudanese officials, including its president Omar al-Bashir voiced support for the construction of Ethiopia’s giant dam.

The Ethiopian dam being constructed in Benshangul-Gumuz region, near the Sudanese border is 1,780m long and 145m high with water holding capacity of 74 billion cubic meters.

Upon completion, the dam which will be Africa’s largest will have the capacity to generate 6,000MW of electricity. The $ 4.2 billion project is being built by Italy’s Salini Impregilo Spa.