Egypt to submit final report on Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations to African Union, Monday

CAIRO – 13 July 2020:  Egypt is expected to submit its final report on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations to South Africa as the incumbent head of the African Union on Monday after ten days of negotiations that started earlier on July 3.

All of the three countries, ‘Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia’ which held Intensive discussions on the dam during the past days will issue their final reports on the negotiation’s outcomes. During the final and tenth day of talks, Sunday, the three water and irrigation ministers reviewed the technical and legal committees' discussions, held on Friday, Egypt’s Irrigation and Water Resources Minister said in a statement.

On Friday, Egypt has firmly rejected Ethiopia’s suggestion on postponing reaching a settlement on the points of contention in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations; Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation spokesperson Mohammed El Sebaei said.

He added in statements, Friday that the negotiations continued on its eighth day without reaching an agreement, explaining that Ethiopia’s obstinacy is still hindering the talks. ‘After seven days of negotiations, everything still the same’, Sebaei told MBC Masr channel

He added that the final report of the negotiations will be handed to South Africa as the head of the African Union on July 13; noting that Egypt and Sudan still didn’t review any of the dam’s safety studies.

Over the past week, technical and legal committees from the three countries held two separate meetings, in an attempt to reconcile viewpoints over the dam's points of disagreement on both tracks.

The African Union-sponsored negotiations are attended by observers from the U.S. and the EU. During the technical committee's meeting, Egypt tabled some alternative formulations concerning dealing with periods of prolonged drought, as well as the rules for the annual operation and refilling of the giant hydroelectric dam.

Constructions in the Grand Renaissance Dam started on April 2, 2011 at a cost of $4.8 billion. It was built by the Italian construction and engineering company Salini Impergilo. The Italian company is headquartered in Milan. The dam is located on the Blue Nile with a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, and is expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of power.

Since May 2011, Cairo has voiced its concern over how the dam can reduce the country’s annual shares of 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water. Egypt’s average water per-capita is expected to drop from 663 cubic meters per year to 582 cubic meters by 2025, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in 2014.