Morsi Holds Press Conference Today On Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam

On Thursday afternoon, the Egyptian presidency at Heliopolis headquarters will hold press conference to explain the current stance and the latest developments about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.

Early this week, Ethiopia began diverting the flow of the Nile to build a Dh17 billion hydroelectric dam that is alarming countries downstream.

Ethiopia is the source of the larger of the two tributaries of the world’s longest river for water.

It is worth mentioning that Ethiopia’s government announced that it will try to accommodate nations concerned that their water supplies may be affected by the damming of the Blue Nile River, as Sudanese and Egyptian officials met to discuss the issue.

Ethiopia, source of one of the two tributaries of the Nile River, will start filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile at the “end of next year,” Deputy Prime Minister Debretsion Gebremichael said in an interview yesterday. The 80 billion-birr ($4.3 billion) hydropower project may begin generating 600 megawatts of electricity next year and is set for completion in 2017, he said.