Sunday, August 31, 2014

Sharing the Nile waters according to needs | Mada Masr

A A ministerial-level meeting in Khartoum including Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to establish mechanisms for further investigations of the consequences of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) downstream has concluded, on Tuesday, August 26. The gathering took place two months after Egypt and Ethiopia had issued ajoint communique that stressed the importance of the contested water of the Nile River for the two countries and outlined general principles for future moves to resolve disagreements. The statement was a result of an encounter between Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, during the African summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
The conveners in Tuesday’s meeting put together a procedure for follow-up on a preliminary report by an international panel of experts that had rung alarm bells in Cairo about the potential damage the GERD could inflict on Egypt’s water supply. Cairo’s position on the dam is not entirely clear; officials have reportedly said that they wanted the GERD scaled down considerably, while Irrigation Minister Hossam al-Moghazi himself was cited as saying that Egypt regarded it with a new “vision,” without further clarification. Egyptian officials seem to be banking on Ethiopia’s purported inability to finance the project, whereas their Ethiopian counterparts insist the project will be completed regardless of whether it wins Egypt’s approval or not.
The standoff over the GERD is fundamentally a conflict over who gets how much of the Nile’s water. Future talks among the three states of the Eastern Nile’s eastern basin – which provides 85 percent of the river’s total flow – therefore have to grapple first and foremost with the question of water apportionment. Although it would be partial, a resolution to the conflict in this part of the basin would serve as a model for a comprehensive pact that includes the other eight co-riparians.
“There may not be enough water for everybody to get all they want from the Nile’s waters, and so must share the burdens as well as the benefits, something states are usually reluctant to do.”
Both Egypt and Ethiopia face severe political and economic problems too numerous to elaborate, and their governments might be eager to show the citizenry progress on a major issue. That the ministerial meeting in the Sudanese capital was successful may be a sign of such eagerness.
Sudan’s midstream location between Ethiopia and Egypt has accorded it a pivotal place in the Nile dispute, which is also a dilemma. The choice of Khartoum as the site for the talks rather than Addis Ababa or Cairo is perhaps a nod to Sudan’s standpoint. Traditionally, Sudan made bilateral arrangements with Egypt over the Nile’s water. Recently though, it has come to favor the GERD, which it reasons will provide it with electric power at low cost and release a steady supply of silt-free water to its own already-silted dams. It is bound, on the other hand, to Egypt by the 1959 treaty which permitted the construction of the Aswan High Dam and fashioned their present water rights and joint management regime.
It would be hard for Sudan to alienate either neighbor: Ethiopia is upstream of the river, and Egypt could create difficulties for a country plagued by ethnic and political strife. Keeping in mind the vehemence with which Egypt and Sudan sparred in the past over the border area of Halayeb, wrangling over the Nile water could escalate in unpredictable ways. Sudan may reckon that securing its own interest lies in trying to bridge the gap between the two rivals.
But on what basis would the Nile’s water be divided? The Malabo communique highlighted the need for cooperation and reciprocity: Ethiopia pledged to avoid any possible harm from the dam to Egypt’s water usage, and Egypt to take into consideration Ethiopia’s development needs. Put together these commitments echo the core provisions of international water law.
Up until this month, there was only customary international water law. But as of August 17, 2014, the 1997 UN General Assembly’s Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (“1997 UN Convention”) entered into force after being ratified by the requisite number of states.  The law basically has two main components: equitable utilization and joint management. Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, however, all abstained from the 1997 vote. Egypt and Sudan stayed away as they feared that “equitable utilization” would mean reduction of their current water quotas, and Ethiopia because it did not want joint management of its infrastructure, which entails systematic cooperation with the two downstream states.
The three countries subsequently accepted the equitable utilization principle in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a cooperative venture of all the Nilotic nations. Unfortunately, Ethiopia swerved when it co-issued in 2010 with other upstream nations a Cooperative Framework agreement which replaced the legal concept of equitable utilization with the language of “water security.” Both Egypt and Sudan challenged this formulation, and the Framework has yet to enter into force.  The three states can get around this hurdle by taking a pragmatic, good-will step and endorse the 1997 UN Convention, which will be the legal frame of reference for international water tribunals or arbitration, irrespective of their stance.
The equitable utilization principle in the UN Convention can be a start for negotiations, although not a bad one, since mutual consent to work within the frame of the law confers legitimacy on states’ demands and signals initial willingness for compromise. The rest of the negotiations are likely to be more politics and economics than law. Why?  Because the criteria enumerated for utilization to be equitable are too elastic for forging agreements.
The principle itself competes also with a second historic principle — prior use or appropriation — which it appears to subsume in the UN Convention. Prior appropriation was the reigning doctrine in the US and Europe before the Industrial Revolution which, together with capitalism, created opportunities for large scale tapping of water resources as well as new uses and users. The more flexible equitable utilization doctrine was the legal scaffold that emerged from and facilitated the new opportunities and, not surprisingly, was transplanted to international water law. Implementation of the doctrine, however, is more feasible in countries with federal systems where courts are able to adjudicate water disputes than in a world of sovereign states lacking such venues and the associated enforcement mechanisms.
Equitable utilization signifies not equal shares, but equality of right to uses and benefits. It assigns water quotas according to what amounts to a maze of factors, none of which is paramount: geography and hydrology of the watercourse, avoidance of significant harm, social and economic needs, size of population in the basin, and alternative water sources.  Yet many water specialists who have grappled with these criteria found them unwieldy, not least because no weights-- or hierarchy of importance-- are ascribed to the factors, and  they often ended up with subjective weighting preferences or even eschewing the doctrine altogether. In negotiations, the elasticity of the factors opens the door for each co-riparian party to stress the factor(s) that it deems more advantageous. And we are back to power politics.
In the Nile basin, Egypt highlights its current intake of 55.5 billion cubic meters, its lack of alternative water resources, and how the Nile is the sole lifeline of its existence. At the same time it points to Ethiopia’s other rivers and untapped rainfall. Ethiopia builds its case on the preponderant contribution of its territory to the Nile flow, its poor economy, need to irrigate large areas to feed the rapidly growing population, and on what it regards as Egypt’s wasteful water exploitation practices. Egypt refers also to historical accords and understandings that granted it veto power over altering the flow of the river by Ethiopia, which it says carry over to the present era in accordance with the legal principle of state succession. Ethiopia, on the other hand, dismisses past accords as vestiges of the colonial era.
There may be a way out of these conundrums, and that is to ground the bargaining over water division in the factors of social, economic, and environmental needs. These needs necessarily account for the size of population and alternative water resources that can meet a portion of the needs. They are the bases on which countries justify their demand for re-apportionment or for maintaining existing allotments, as evident in the Egypt-Ethiopia communique: Ethiopia’s pledge not to cause harm to Egypt’s water uses, and Egypt’s recognition of Ethiopia’s development needs. Finally, a needs-based division is in the utilitarian spirit of equitable utilization which revolves around use, and has prevailed in most international watercourse agreements.
Needs are not easy to determine and require a consensus on a time frame. Still, it is possible to estimate the water required for the various uses in each nation: domestic, municipal, industrial, food production, and ecosystem maintenance. The chief water consumer is irrigated agriculture, and guaranteeing food production is also paramount in the minds of people and politicians. Hydroelectric power is usually a major need early on, and its relative contribution declines in subsequent years as the country industrializes and develops more power sources.
By assigning roughly the same water needs for each person in the Nile basin, and agreeing on population sizes, it is possible to quantify needs. Likewise, there is enough information to estimate the alternative resources in each co-riparian state—other rivers, groundwater, and rainfall that produces crops and animal feed. Egypt could also present plans for using irrigation water more efficiently, which is the equivalent of alternative resources.  Egyptian experts often speak of the rainwater that is untapped in Ethiopia, but have yet to produce studies that indicate how and how much of this lost water can be harnessed and at what cost.
Making needs paramount as an equitable utilization criterion might sound like an easy technocratic way out. It may be so, but to accept it at as a principle is a question for politics. What does Ethiopia mean when it commits not to harm Egypt’s water usage? Would Ethiopia entertain Egypt’s demand to scale down the GERD, after it has turned it, as states are wont on doing with such megaprojects, into a grandiose nationalist symbol and bringer of progress?  Would it put aside the claim to the Nile’s water based on its preponderant contribution to the river’s flow? What does Egypt propose when it pledges to recognize Ethiopia’s “development needs”? Would it be willing to reconsider its current share of 55.5 billion cubic meters, which Ethiopia finds excessive but which successive Egyptian governments have treated as sacrosanct? Which one of the two states possesses greater power resources to tilt the negotiations in its favor?
Such questions underline the fact that there may not be enough water for everybody to get all they want from the Nile’s waters, and so must share the burdens as well as the benefits, something states are usually reluctant to do.

by Sharif S Elmusa

Egyptian, Ethiopian FMs Hold 7 point Communiquee on the Nile dam 4th Tripatriate meeting

Egypt and Ethiopia reiterated their commitment to the principles of mutual respect and achieving common interests.
In a joint statement by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on the talks the two had on Thursday in Malabo, the two sides agreed to immediately start preparations for the convention of a two-way commission within three months.
The statement, read by the foreign ministers of the two countries, revealed a decision to form a higher committee concerned with bilateral and regional relations in the political, economic, social, and security domains.
The Egyptian and Ethiopian sides underlined the importance of the Nile River as a basic source for the Egyptian existence and their understanding of Ethiopia’s development needs.
Regarding water uses, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed on the following:
1- Respecting the principles of dialogue and cooperation as a foundation for mutual interests.
2- Giving priority to establishing regional projects to develop financial resources to meet the growing demand on water and face water shortages.
3- Respecting international law principles.
4- Resuming immediately the activities of the tripartite committee on the Grand Renaissance Dam to enforce recommendations of the international expert committee and respecting the results of studies to be conducted during the dam project’s different phases.
5- The Ethiopian government commits to avoiding any possible harm the dam could inflict on Egypt’s water usage.
6- The Egyptian government commits to constructive dialogue with Ethiopia that takes into consideration the latter’s development needs.
7- Committing to act in good faith under the framework of the tripartite committee.
The two countries agreed to start applying this joint statement forthwith.
During the joint press conference, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shokri said President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had frank and constructive talks with the Ethiopian prime minister on Thursday and discussed Nile-related issues.
A new chapter in Egyptian-Ethiopian relations pivoted on honesty and mutual understanding has started, Shokri said during the event held jointly with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Responding to a question by MENA on the message the statement is sending to the Egyptian public opinion, the foreign minister said the statement was an important development in Egypt-Ethiopia relations and lays the foundations of a new chapter.
Asked about the fifth point in the joint statement on how the Ethiopian government will avoid jeopardizing Egypt’s water usage, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Grand Renaissance Dam was technically well-designed to avoid any future problems.
There is also the three-way dialogue that will be forged under the proposed recommendations, he said.
Should any bad effects from the dam emerge, the two countries will discuss them as agreed, he said.
- See more at: http://addisnews.net/egyptian-ethiopian-fms-hold-press-conference/23734#sthash.epSE5X9V.dpuf

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Sudan hosts talks on Ethiopian Nile dam row - Yahoo News





Egyptian Minister of Irrigation, Hossam Maghazi (C), speaks during a Nile River forum with his Sudanese and Ethiopian counterparts in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on August 25, 2014
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Egyptian Minister of Irrigation, Hossam Maghazi (C), speaks during a Nile River forum with his Sudanese and Ethiopian counterparts in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on August 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)
Khartoum (AFP) - Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia opened talks Monday to try to resolve a dispute over a hydro-electric dam being built by Addis Ababa on the Nile.
Cairo fears that Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance dam project could diminish its water supply.
"This will be a crucial and definitive meeting on a global solution to this issue about the dam," said Sudanese Water Resources and Electricity Minister Muattaz Musa Abdallah Salim, hosting the Khartoum talks.
Despite two previous tripartite meetings late last year ending without agreement, Ethiopian Water Minister Alemayehu Tegenu said Monday the dam project would not have major consequences for Egypt and Sudan downstream.
His Egyptian counterpart, Hussein Mohamed al-Mughazi, stressed his country's "special situation because it depends totally on the waters of the Nile", a river that it also vital to Sudan.
Egypt has constantly expressed its opposition to any project that might disrupt the flow of the Nile.
The Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum to form the Nile, which flows through Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean.
Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May last year to build the 6,000 MW dam which will be Africa's largest when completed in 2017.
Ethiopian officials have said the project to construct the 1,780-metre-long and 145-metre high dam will cost $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euros).
Egypt believes its "historic rights" to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile's flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.
Most other Nile Basin countries contest this.
A new deal signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allows them to work on river projects without Cairo's prior agreement.
In protest against the 2010 pact, Cairo withdrew from the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a forum for riparian countries to discuss joint management and development of the region's resources.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Egypt braces for new talks on disputed Ethiopian dam | GulfNews.com


Reassurances sought on dam safety and storage capacity
  • By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
  • Published: 16:22 August 23, 2014
  • Gulf News
Cairo: Egypt is to resume negotiations on Monday with Ethiopia on a disputed Nile dam, which soured the two African countries’ ties for more than a year.
An Egyptian delegation, led by Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hossam Moghazi, is due to arrive in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Sunday for the new round of talks, which will also be attended by water ministers of Ethiopia and Sudan.
The negotiations come nearly two months after a landmark meeting between Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on the sidelines of an African summit in Equatorial Guinea.
During their meeting, both leaders agreed to open a “new chapter in relationships” after tensions caused by Ethiopia’s construction of the Renaissance Dam on the Nile. Negotiations over the facility were suspended in January this year after both sides failed to reach an agreement.
Cairo-Addis Ababa ties deteriorated last year when Egypt’s then Islamist president, Mohammad Mursi, and other politicians threatened in a meeting, broadcast live on state television, to bomb Ethiopia over its building of the $6.4 billion (Dh23.51 billion) dam.
Months later, Al Sissi led the army’s ouster of Mursi following enormous street protests against his troubled one-year rule.
The Khartoum negotiations are seen as a test of the latest thaw in ties between Egypt and Ethiopia.
“There are a number of fixed principles that will be emphasised prior to the negotiations, including our respect for Ethiopia’s right to benefit from the Nile without harming our water rights, based on the joint statement issued by the Egyptian and Ethiopian leaders,” said Moghazi.
“President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi has confirmed that Egypt’s understanding of Ethiopia’s development needs will be maintained so long as Egypt’s water security is heeded.”
The Ethiopian dam has triggered wide fears in Egypt, which heavily relies on the Nile to cover the water needs of its population of 87 million people.
The Egyptian minister added that all points of disagreements with Ethiopia will be put up for negotiations “within a specific time-frame”. They include reassurances sought by Egypt on the safety of the dam body against potential collapse. Another point of contention is related to the dam’s storage capacity estimated at 74 billion cubic metres, which Egypt sees as too high and may affect its water share.
“Negotiations will not be easy,” said an official at the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources. “They may take time, but the presence of political will and sincere negotiations can help reach a solution,” the official added on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Egypt’s annual quota of the Nile waters is estimated at 55.5 billion cubic metres. Water sharing among the 10 Nile Basin countries is regulated under a colonial-era treaty. Some Nile Basin countries have said the treaty is unfair.
Ethiopia has been urging the riparian countries to ratify the Comprehensive Framework Agreement to replace the 1959 treaty that gives Egypt and Sudan the lion’s share of the Nile waters. Six countries have already signed the 2010 pact amid Egyptian protests

Monday, August 18, 2014

Egypt says it has new 'vision' for Ethiopia's dam - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

:"Egypt says it has new 'vision' for Ethiopia's dam
New 'vision' won't affect Egypt's share of Nile water, says country's irrigation minister, as talks are planned to take place in Sudan later this month
Ahram Online, Sunday 17 Aug 2014
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Egypt`s Irrigation minister Hossam El-Moghazi (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Egypt's Irrigation Minister Hossam El-Moghazi told privately owned Mehwar channel that Egypt has a new "vision" regarding Ethiopia's planned Grand Renaissance Dam ahead of another round of talks in the Sudanese capital.

In a phone interview, El-Moghazi said the Egyptian delegation will head to Khartoum on 24 August for two days of discussions.

"Egypt has a new vision, that will not affect Egypt's water share, and we are expecting that the other party responds to it," said El-Moghazi.

Meanwhile, the minister said that Egyptian satellite images have revealed that construction has not yet begun on the part of the dam which will reserve the Nile's water.

The project has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government since May 2013, when images of the dam's construction stirred public anxiety about the possible effect on Egypt's potable water supply.

Ethiopia maintains that Egypt's water share will not be negatively affected by the successful completion of the project, set to be Africa's largest hydroelectric dam.

The upcoming tripartite talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan were initially planned to take place in Cairo but were later moved to Khartoum.

The talks are expected to develop seven main points that Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn previously discussed during a meeting in late June – among them fostering dialogue and cooperation between the two countries as well as regional projects to meet the growing demand for water."



'via Blog this'

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Three International Water Conflicts to Watch Ethiopia, Turky, China» Geopolitical Analysis & Forecasting


Ilisu Dam floodplain cc Senol Demir


China-India: The Brahmaputra River

The Brahmaputra River is a 2,900 km river that originates in Tibet and flows through India’s Arunachal Pradesh state before merging with the Ganges and draining into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh. It is considered an important resource in all three countries that it flows through: for energy-hungry China, it provides hydroelectricity; and for India and Bangladesh, a key agricultural lifeline in otherwise overpopulated and arid region.
The Brahmaputra River is particularly important to the agricultural industry in India’s Assam plains, and worries have arisen recently regarding a series of hydroelectric plants that China is in various stages of construction on its Tibetan plateau. Some experts believe that these projects will reduce the flow of the Brahmaputra in India, compounding an already tenuous water situation in the affected areas.
While there is no comprehensive bilateral treaty in place for the sustainable management of the Brahmaputra River, some steps have been taken recently by the Modi and Xi Jinping governments, mainly in the form of an information sharing agreement for hydrological data. But until cooperation becomes more entrenched, the Brahmaputra River remains a potential source of friction between two of the world’s preeminent rising powers.

Ethiopia-Egypt: Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Nile River

In 2011, the Ethiopian government announced plans to build the ‘Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’ – a $4.1 bn, 6,000MW-capacity hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan. The dam is meant to capitalize on Ethiopia’s considerable hydroelectric potential and provide electricity for not just Ethiopians but regional populations as well. However, some fear that this dam will trade one problem for another. And by shoring up its energy supply, Ethiopia might be jeopardizing its water security by increasing the volatility of a river that already has a long history of being difficult to predict.
The potential impact on water supplies, particularly downriver, is a grave concern in Egypt; which, unlike neighboring Sudan, has consistently opposed the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam from the start. Cairo’s legal argument defers to treaties from 1929 and 1959 that guarantee Egypt two-thirds of the Nile’s waters along with the right to veto any upstream projects – a right that was ignored when Ethiopia unilaterally went ahead with construction.
Efforts to foster a multilateral approach to developing the Nile basin have so far failed, as evidenced in the 2010 Cooperative Framework Agreement that saw upriver countries join together against the downriver countries (Egypt, Sudan) who refuse to give up their historical rights despite changing economic power dynamics in the region.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is expected to be completed sometime in 2017.

Turkey-Iraq: Ilisu Dam and the Tigris River

Turkey’s newly re-elected Erdogan government has been keen to push through the final part of its long-running Southeastern Anatolian Project: the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River near the border of Syria. The Ilisu Dam is the most recent in a long line of Turkish projects meant to tap into the hydroelectric potential of both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and once completed the Ilisu Dam will generate 1,200 MW, or roughly 2% of Turkey’s energy needs.
The Southeastern Anatolian Project entailed the construction of some 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants in the Tigris-Euphrates basin, so this is an international water conflict that has existed for quite some time. The big loser in Turkey’s upstream activities is Iraq and, to a lesser degree, Syria. Iraq has historically enjoyed the lion’s share of these rivers’ waters, which have historically supplied the seasonal marshlands needed to grow food. But these waters have been receding over the past decade, even well before the Ilisu Dam’s completion.  In fact, northern Iraq and Syria are currently experiencing droughts so protracted that some analysts  are questioning whether or not they have contributed to the rise of ISIS in the region. Some of the more extreme projections hold that, owing to a combination of climate change and upstream dam activity, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers won’t have sufficient flow to reach the sea by as early as 2040.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Ethiopia, Egypt differ on Nile dam statement | Africa | Worldbulletin News


Ethiopia, Egypt differ on Nile dam statement

"Egypt wants to discuss all the seven points of the communiqué but Ethiopia insists on discussing the 4th point alone," Fekahmed Negash, director-general of boundary and trans-boundary rivers at Ethiopia's Water Ministry said.

World Bulletin / News Desk
A 7-point statement issued following a June meeting between Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on a controversial Ethiopian dam on the Nile is a new source of contention between Addis Ababa and Cairo.
While Egypt wants to discuss the seven points of the statement, Ethiopia insists on discussing only the fourth point about the resumption of the tripartite talks.
"Egypt wants to discuss all the seven points of the communiqué but Ethiopia insists on discussing the 4th point alone," Fekahmed Negash, director-general of boundary and trans-boundary rivers at Ethiopia's Water Ministry, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
Negash said that "Ethiopia will discuss only this point because the rest are related to bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Egypt and they need to be considered separately."
Set up in 2011, a tripartite technical committee was tasked with studying the impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the two downstream states.
The committee's activities, however, were suspended in January amid mounting tension between Cairo and Addis Ababa. But Addis Ababa, Cairo and Khartoum agreed to resume the tripartite talks on August 26.
In recent years, tension has marred relations between Ethiopia and Egypt over the former's construction of a major dam project on the upper reaches of the Nile River, which represents Egypt's primary water source.
Ethiopia says the dam is necessary for its national development plans. It insists the project won't impact Egypt's traditional share of Nile water, which has long been determined by a colonial-era water-sharing treaty that Addis Ababa has never acknowledged.

Ethiopian public cover 26 percent of cost

Some 26 percent of the total cost needed for the construction of a multi-billion dollar hydro-electric dam on the Nile are being covered by the Ethiopian public, an Ethiopian spokesman said Thursday.
"The public, including children, are showing interest to put their fingerprints on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)," Fekadu Ketema, spokesman for the office of the National Council for Coordination and Public Participation for the Construction of GERD, told Anadolu Agency.
"The bond sale is well in progress and additional fundraising mechanisms including SMS and lottery awards are put in place side by side with the bond sale with a view to enabling all segments of the society to provide financial support to the dam construction," he said.
Ketema said that the fourth round of a bond purchasing program has already been launched.
"There is no shortage of money at all and such schemes are designed just to fulfill the interest of all Ethiopians to put their fingerprints on the dam," he said.
He went on to say that even Salini Construction Company, the Italian firm which is building the dam, has confirmed that "there is no financial shortage for construction of the dam."
Ketema expected that the 4.8-billion-dollar dam – of which 35.8 percent of its construction has completed – will be operational as scheduled.
Some 8750 employees are engaged in the construction of the dam with 2200 different types of machinery deployed to the site.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Tripartite meeting to discuss the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Khartoum | Diplomat News Network

 BY TAJUDIN
 IN WORLD NEWS
 AUG 3RD, 2014
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ethiopian dam
Khartoum (SUNA + DIPLOMAT)- Sudan will host the tri-partite meeting of the Water Resources ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sudan, set to take place mid of current August, to discuss joint mechanism between the three states for the implementation of the recommendations reached by the committee of experts on the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia.
ethiopian dam 1
Mutaz Musa, Sudan’s Water Resources and Electricity Minister told that the three ministers are agreed to take the tri-partite meeting to Khartoum and that it is expected to be an axis of accord and agreement between the three sides.
The Minister expressed his optimism in an interview to be published in full on Monday that meeting will place the three countries on the right track with regards to the agendas to be discussed.
He expressed optimism as well that the three countries would reach consent on the issue.
ethiopian dam 2
The three countries, the minister stressed, have no other option but to negotiate and to consult for reaching amicable solution to the questions and agendas.
He pointed out that the issues and projects under discussion are regional and consensual, stressing that given the conviction among the three parties, an agreement is reachable.
On the benefits Sudan would gain from the Ethiopian dam, the minister said the consultations between the three countries is on how to implement the studies recommended by the international experts as regards the dam and its impact on the Sudanese dams and the water, economic, social and ecological impacts.
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam MAP
He said August meeting will put the three countries on the right track to finalize those studies and consequently show the possible impact and effects on each of the three countries.
The minister said there would be positive effects on the Sudan future water and electricity generation