10 meeting of tripartite committee on Ethiopia dam starts in Khartoum

The 10th meeting of the tripartite committee between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Renaissance Dam which Addis Ababa is constructing on the Blue Nile, began here on Sunday.

Ahmed Bahaa el Din, the Head of the Irrigation Ministry's Nile Water Sector, is leading the Egyptian delegation.

In press statements, head of the Sudanese delegation Seif el Din Hamad said the meeting will examine the technical suggestion submitted by the French company BRL.

As per the suggestion, the French company will be responsible for 70 percent of the technical studies of the dam, while the rest will be conducted by Artelia company.

He said the three countries have received copies of the proposal, adding that this round aims at reaching a unified proposal that accommodates views of the three countries.

Hamad said the three delegations will meet with the two French companies in the presence of the legal adviser to the tripartite committee, the UK-based law firm Corbett, to develop and approve the final legal proposal.

Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia signed a declaration of principles on the dam project that tacitly approves the dam construction, but calls for technical studies aimed at safeguarding the water quotas of the three riparian states.

On September 22, 2014, the panel of experts in the three countries proposed the conduction of two additional studies on the dam project, the first one on the effect of the dam on the water quota of Sudan and Egypt and the second one to examine the dam’s ecological, economic and social impacts of the dam on Sudan and Egypt.

The multi-billion dollar dam is being constructed on the Blue Nile, about 20 kilometers from the Sudanese border, and has a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, and is expected to generate electrical power of up to 6,000 megawatts.

Egypt is concerned that the dam could reduce its quota of 55.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile water, while the Ethiopian side maintains that the dam is primarily built to produce electricity and will not harm Sudan and Egypt.

Source: MENA