Egypt’s irrigation minister unveils new roadmap for Ethiopia’s Renaissance dam

 Tuesday 28 Jul 2015, Ahram (Egypt)

Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation, Hossam Moghazi, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the eighth tripartite meeting is expected to take place on August 20. The meeting will pave the way to signing contracts with two European consultancy firms to study the impacts of the dam.

Moghazi said that the three countries have agreed to give 70 percent of the research workload to a French consultancy firm and the other 30 percent would go to a Dutch firm. Meanwhile, the Irrigation Minister said that each country will meet on its own to discuss the findings of the firms on August 12. Afterwards, tripartite meetings will take place in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

During the press conference, Moghazi also announced that the three countries have agreed on the methodologies of the studies that will be conducted to determine the impact of the Renaissance dam on downstream countries.

Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have also discussed a roadmap for the future of the dam. He stressed that officials of the three countries have reached an accord in many controversial issues concerning the technical studies of the dam without giving any details. The study conducted by the two European consultancy firms will determine the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the construction of the dam.

In March, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia signed a declaration of principles on the dam, agreeing to safeguard the interests of all three countries. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who hailed the declaration as a “positive step,” visited Ethiopia in the same month and addressed the country’s parliament, calling for a new era of cooperation.

The Renaissance dam, formerly known as the Millennium dam, is a gravity dam on the Blue Nile River. The dam, scheduled to be completed in 2017, will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant with a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters of water.