Egypt's Irrigation minister arrives in Khartoum for Ethiopia dam meeting

Egyptian Irrigation Minister Hossam Moghazi arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday to lead Egypt's delegation to the seventh meeting of a tripartite committee on Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam, which will start on Wednesday.

The Egyptian minister was received by Sudan's Minister of Electricity and Water Resources Muataz Musa.

In press statements, the two ministers voiced hope that the disagreement points pertaining to the framework of the two international consultancy offices, which were selected to carry out studies on the impacts of the dam on Egypt and Sudan, would be settled.

A number of issues on the work of the two offices have not been resolved during the sixth meeting of the committee, which was held in Cairo in June.

The two ministers agreed that the chance is available now to reach an agreement that satisfies all parties, as a step to sign the contracts with the two offices.

Egyptian Irrigation minister said that the period of Khartoum's meeting could be extended for an additional one day if it was required.

The Renaissance Dam is a gravity dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia currently under construction.

It is located about 15 kilometers east of the border with Sudan.

At 6,000 megawatts, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed, as well as the 11th largest in the world sharing the spot with the Krasnoyarsk Dam.

The storage reservoir holds a large volume of water equal to 79 billion cubic meters.

Ethiopia denies that the dam will have a negative impact on water flow to Egypt.

Egypt fears a temporary reduction of water availability due to the filling of the dam and a permanent reduction because of evaporation from the reservoir.

The reservoir size is about equivalent to the annual flow of the Nile at the Sudanese-Egyptian border.