Copyright : APA
A tripartite meeting between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam will start in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, on Tuesday, APA learns here.
The delegations comprising ministers of foreign affairs and water resources from both Egypt and Ethiopia have arrived in Khartoum on Monday.
The three previous meetings held in Khartoum and Addis Ababa have failed to reach an agreement on Egyptian reservations relating to the construction of the dam.
The ministers of irrigation and water resources in the three countries signed last September an agreement to form a committee of experts to bridge gaps in views on the impact the dam would have on the three countries.
The meetings will also address the political and technical aspects of the dam.
The Egyptian ambassador in Sudan, Osama Shaltout said in a press statement on Sunday that the purpose of the meetings is to achieve results that would bring about mutual benefits to all parties without harming any side.
Egypt had expressed fears that the construction of the dam will diminish its share of the Nile which is a source of water to millions of people of the desert nation.
For his part, Ethiopia’s Minister of Water and Energy, Alemayehu Tegenu stressed that his country will not seek permission from anyone to construct dams, adding that the Renaissance Dam is being built on the course of the Blue Nile but that it would not harm Egypt’s water share.
“I would like to emphasize that Ethiopia is a sovereign state and will not wait for permission from anyone to build dams and development projects on tributaries of the Nile River, and we reiterate that this dam will not cause any harm to the interests of others,” Tegenu said in an interview with the Turkey-based Anadolu news agency.
Five members of the Nile Basin upper stream, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania recently signed the Entebbe Agreement which seeks to re-allocate the shares of the Nile water, contrary to colonial agreements on the matter.
Source: http://en.starafrica.com/
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