ADDIS ABABA
Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu held on Monday a closed-door meeting with visiting Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel-Muttalib for more talks on Ethiopia's River Nile multi-billion dollar hydroelectric dam project, which puts Egypt on alarm over its water share.
Bezuneh Tolcha, the head of the ministry's communication department, told Anadolu Agency that the talks are "not for media consumption."
In a statement on Sunday, the Egyptian Irrigation Ministry said Abdel-Muttalib's visit to Ethiopia comes at an invitation from his Ethiopian counterpart.
Ministry spokesman Khalid Wasif said the minister's talks in Addis Ababa will mainly focus on the dam project's sticky issues.
Plans by Ethiopia to build a hydroelectric dam, called the Renaissance Dam, over the Blue Nile where most of Egypt's Nile water revenues come, has sent shockwaves down the Nile Delta and the valley in Egypt.
Nile water distribution among the countries of the Nile basin used to rest on a colonial-era agreement giving Egypt and Sudan the lion's share of Nile water.
Citing development ambitions, Ethiopia insists it needs to build a series of dams to generate electricity both for local consumption and exporting.
It maintains that the new dam will benefit Egypt and Sudan, both of which will be invited to purchase electricity generated by it.
A tripartite committee of experts from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan was drawn up in 2011 and tasked with assessing the dam's possible environmental, economic and social impact.
The committee, which includes six members from the three countries along with four international water experts, recently called for further study of safety issues related to the dam's construction and the project's possible impact on the two downstream states.
By Mohamed Taha Tawakel
englishnews@aa.com.tr
