6-Way meeting over Ethiopia Dam resumes

The six-way meeting grouping the foreign and irrigation ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan was resumed in the Sudanese capital on Monday amid willingness of all sides concerned to reach positive results that would materialize the aspiration of three states.

The first session of the meeting began on Sunday by an opening ceremony that was followed by a number of closed sessions that tackled the concerns of downstream nations, Egypt and Sudan, towards the controversial dam and the explanation of some of the items of the Declaration of Principles that was signed by the three countries in March in Khartoum.

This is the 11th meeting to be held by officials of the three countries since Ethiopia floated the idea of holding the dam two years ago.

Ethiopia is due to start the first stage of filling the dam’s reservoir in six months, which amounts to 15 billion cubic meters out of a total of 74 billion.

It still insists that the dam aims at generating electricity but both Egypt and Sudan fear it would affect their water quota.

Source: MENA