A Move Seen As ‘Historic’, Ethiopia Starts Diverting Blue Nile Course
Despite the Egyptian concerns over water needs, Addis Ababa says it will begin diverting course of Blue Nile on Tuesday as part of its Renaissance Dam project.
Ethiopia announced on Tuesday that it will begin diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s two major tributaries, as part of its project to build a new dam, Turkey-based news agency Anadolu reported.
The move, which was called “historic” by Ethiopian government spokesperson Bereket Simon, will outrage Egypt and Sudan, which are downstream, because it will negatively affect their water quotas, Anadolu added.
The Renaissance Dam is one of four dams that could be built along the Blue Nile, one of the two branches of the Nile River, which provides Egypt with around 60 percent of its annual 55 billion cubic meters of Nile water.
Egypt’s former minister of irrigation Nasreddin Allam said the move should have been predicted by the Egyptian government or at least monitored by satellites, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported on Tuesday.
According to Allam, Ethiopia brought forward its plan to divert the Blue Nile, which was scheduled to begin in September, to preempt a report by a committee of experts from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia – due at the end of May – on the impact of the Renaissance Dam on Egypt and Sudan.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Berhane Gebre-Christos said the dam, which is under construction and will be able to store 84 million cubic meters of Nile water, would be used exclusively for power generation and would not reduce Egypt’s share of Nile water.
Speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Gebre-Christos affirmed that the dam, which is currently under construction to store 84 million cubic meters of Nile water, will be used exclusively for power generation and not for irrigation.
On Saturday, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said on Saturday that he had made an agreement with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn that both countries’ interests would be addressed during the building of the ‘Renaissance Dam’ in Ethiopia, which many some experts argue will reduce Egypt’s share of the Nile’s potable water.
Speaking to Egyptians in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, where he is currently attending the 21st African Union summit, Morsi stated that there is a committee of experts from both countries that will scrutinise all the details and possible ramifications of the controversial dam.
The under-construction Renaissance Dam has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government.
Egypt will need an additional 21 billion cubic meters of water per year by 2050, on top of its current 55 billion meters quota, to meet the water needs of a projected population of 150 million people, according to Egypt’s National Planning Institute.
