The meetings of water ministers of the east Nile Basin countries, including Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, have failed to reach a solution to outstanding disagreements on the mechanisms of technical and environmental studies on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
An official statement issued by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said that after lengthy discussions over two days, no agreement could be reached between the three countries on the points in question.
The statement blamed Ethiopia's stubborness on certain conditions regarding the work of the team of international experts as causing the failure. Ethiopia rejected the idea of international experts working alongside the tripartite commission of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on dam studies, so as to provide a neutral opinion in case of differences between members of the committee, the ministry said.
Ethiopia rejected the paper proposed by Egypt encouraging confidence in the countries, suggesting international experts would conduct studies on the dam to determine the negative effects on each state and identify mechanisms to ease them, the statement said.
Egypt suggested that the experts would be responsible for the convergence of views regarding rules of operating the dam to avoid harming the water shares of Egypt and Sudan, the statement added.
The statement pointed out that in light of the above-mentioned issues, the meetings were concluded and ministers agreed to maintain consultation between the three countries in case any new proposals were put forward.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
