Ethiopia won’t stop construction of the Renaissance Dam: minister
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The Grand Renaissance Dam is under construction on the Blue Nile River
in Ethiopia. (Photo AFP/William Lloyd-George)
February 12, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Ethiopia’s minister of Water,
Irrigation and Energy, Motuma Mekasa, said his country will continue
the construction works on the Renaissance Dam during the preparation
of the impact studies which is estimated to take around one year.
He told the BBC Friday that his country would work to officially
inaugurate the dam in the advertised date in 2017, pointing that there
is no reason to delay the opening of the dam.
Mekasa denied accusations that Ethiopia is stonewalling the talks on
the dam, pointing the delay was due to differences that exist among
the three countries on the consultancy firms which would undertake the
technical studies besides other issues.
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 French Artelia and BRL groups have been selected to undertake the
dam impact studies. The U.K.-based law firm Corbett & Co was selected
to manage the legal affairs of the tripartite committee.
It is worth to mention that the 12 th meeting of the tripartite
committee on the Renaissance Dam was concluded Thursday in Khartoum
without signing the contract of the technical studies with the
consultancy firms.
However, the committee agreed to hold another meeting in Addis Ababa
in a later date to sign the contract after agreeing on a number of
outstanding technical issues contained in it.
The Ethiopian minister underscored that they are taking the Egyptian
fears about the negative impact of the dam on its water quota
seriously, saying all differences would be resolved through the
tripartite talks.
He added that his country is concerned about the delay in the
implementation of the declaration of principles signed between leaders
of the three countries in Khartoum last March, saying it constitutes
the reference for resolving the differences among the three parties.
Mekas further criticized the Egyptian media approach in dealing with
the dam project, pointing to its negative effect on the tripartite
talks which he described as fruitful.
He expressed his country’s readiness to give Sudan and Egypt the
priority in the sale of the electricity produced by the dam at
competitive rates for the benefit of the peoples of the region.
The multi-billion dollar dam is being constructed on the Blue Nile,
about 20 kilometres 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.
(ST)
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