Experts from the east Nile Basin countries, including Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, continued negotiations until late Sunday over the formation of an international committee to discuss the effects of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, though they failed to reach an agreement.
Egypt fears that the Ethiopian dam will affect its share of the river water, a charge denied by Ethiopia.
Expert technical committees have not yet reach a final agreement on the points of contention, according to official sources participating in the meeting. In the case the disputes continue, contentious items would be raised to the water ministers of the three countries, meeting on Monday afternoon.
Moataz Moussa, the New Sudanese Minister of Water and Electricity, expressed his hope to converge the views of both Egypt and Ethiopia delegations, hoping for Khartoum to see a tripartite agreement that brings together Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia to deal with the dam, in a way that brings about the best interest of the peoples of the three countries and be the start of cooperation among the 10 Nile Basin countries.
According to sources, in the case ministers fail to agree to resolve the current differences, a new date to continue negotiations would be announced, which Egyptians fear would buy the Ethiopian side more time to complete the construction of the Renaissance dam while Cairo tries to expedite the proof of damage of the dam.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
