Egypt on Saturday expressed deep concerns over Ethiopia's not responding to its previous call for an urgent meeting in Cairo over the two sides' Nile water dispute, which was slated for July 18.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bader Abdel Aaty said "almost one month has passed since ex-Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr's last visit to Ethiopia, in which both parties agreed to hold technical meetings at the level of irrigation ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, to discuss the recommendations of the international experts commission's report."
There is no reply from the Ethiopian government yet about the meeting, said Aaty, who asked Addis Ababa not to waste time to resolve the problem.
Ethiopia started in May the diversion of the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile's two basic tributaries, as a preparatory step for constructing its aspired Renaissance Dam. The move has raised worries of Egyptians over their share in the Nile water.
Some experts believe the dam would cause great harm to Egypt, including shortage of Nile water, drying agricultural lands, increasing Nile Delta soil salinity and reducing Egypt's High Dam power generation.
Without completing the technical studies, no side could identify the real influence of establishing the dam over other countries, Aaty said, hope for reaching a consensus for the interest of all parties, including Ethiopia's right in development as well as Egypt's right to preserve its only water source.
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