A two-day meeting as part of the fourth round of tripartite talks over the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam began on 25 August in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Taking part were the Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hossam Eddin Moghazi, Sudanese Minister of Water Resources and Electricity Mo'ataz Moussa, and Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu. The three men reviewed the outcome of previous negotiations and discussed the criteria and mechanisms for building the dam. At the meeting, Egypt focused on the dam's specifications and the planned volume of water to be held in its reservoir. Egypt is keen to coordinate efforts to ensure that Ethiopia is able to generate the electricity it requires from the dam and Egypt continues to receive its share of the Nile's water. Moghazi said that Egypt hopes to convince Ethiopia to change the technical specifications of the dam so that Egypt's share of Nile water is not affected. “Egypt will never be against the interests of any of the Nile Basin countries, but we believe that at the moment the dam will negatively affect Egypt's share of the Nile because it is to be built on the Blue Nile, which provides Egypt with more than 85 per cent of its share of the river's water,” Moghazi said. “There should be further studies to guarantee that there will not be any negative impact on downstream countries such as Egypt and Sudan. Any newly constructed projects on the Nile should also meet the highest international standards,” he added. Speaking on behalf of Ethiopia, Tegenu said that his country did not intend to deprive either Egypt or Sudan of their share of Nile water. “The Renaissance Dam will help to decrease poverty by providing job opportunities in Ethiopia. However, it is not intended to benefit Ethiopia alone, but instead will benefit the whole region,” he said. Along with Sudan and Ethiopia, Egypt earlier formed an expert committee to provide opinions on the construction and possible harms the dam might cause. The committee included four international experts in addition to two experts from each of the three countries. According to Tegenu, recommendations made by the expert committee were discussed during the present round of meetings, as were the best means of implementing them. “The Ethiopian government has accepted the committee's findings and recommendations, especially in regard to the reservoir and the dam's safety measures,” he said. However, Diaa Al-Qousi, an international water expert, said that he was concerned that Egypt could never accept the dam at its current specifications of 170 metres high and 1,800 metres long with 16 turbines and a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic metres of water. If built, the dam would be able to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, making it the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa when it is finished in 2018. “With a dam of this sort, Ethiopia could simply deprive Egypt of its water supply. Egypt could never accept this, especially since it is already suffering from water scarcity. This is likely to increase because of the volumes required to fill a reservoir containing 74 billion cubic metres of water,” Al-Qousi said. He added that the Egyptian delegation would need to convince Ethiopia to scale down the dam, building one more like that planned in the 1960s. “Ethiopia must understand that the River Nile for Egypt is the river of life and not something that it can use for its own development,” he said. According to experts, Ethiopia has committed errors by starting construction without fully considering the report issued by the committee of international experts. The report spells out the likely effects of the dam on Egypt's share of 55.5 billion cubic metres of Nile River water. Mohamed Nasreddin Allam, a former minister of irrigation and water resources, said that the committee had indicated that further studies should have been carried out before construction work began to assess environmental, socio-economic and hydraulic impacts. “The committee's report said that the existing studies were at level one and that further level-two studies would be needed to show the impact of the dam on downstream countries,” Allam explained. Ethiopia has already finished almost 35 per cent of the dam's construction, and work on two of the 16 generators. “Ethiopia has already spent US$1 billion on the dam. The following phases will require more funds and Ethiopia intends to ask for foreign aid to finance the project,” Allam said. He added that Egypt's requirements were reasonable. “It's our right to secure our water supply in the short, medium and long terms. At the same time we respect Ethiopia's right to development, so long as this does not affect Egypt's share in the Nile water. I believe that Egypt wants the negotiations to end in a win-win situation for both countries,” Allam said. Moghazi said that Ethiopia had responded positively to Egypt's requests and that Egypt intended to help raise finance for the dam in the Arab countries. While the idea of the Renaissance Dam goes back to 1956-1964, it was only in 2009 that Ethiopia revived the project. The plans were approved in November 2010, and the Ethiopian government officially announced the project at the end of March 2011. The dam is being built in the state of Benishangul Gumuz on the Blue Nile.
