The Ethiopian minister of water, irrigation and energy, Motuma Mekasa, announced that construction of Grand Renaissance dam was to immediately restart and competed.

The official said there was no reason for works to be halted. Expected to be completed in 2015, the 6,000MW electric dam will have a 63 billion m3 reservoir which is even the reason for delay in construction.

Indeed, Egypt fears its share in the Nile’s waters will decrease as a result of the dam’s construction. So with Sudan, it formed a committee to insure the infrastructure does not affect the interests of other nations. However, works of the committee that started in 2014 is progressing very slowly and stagnate at the stage of determination of cost of feasibility study by French Company Artelia et BRL to estimate impact of dam on the Nile’s waters.

Accused of slowing works by prolonging talks, Ethiopia defended itself. According to the Eastern nation, they are delays in negotiations because the three countries are disagreeing over the execution of the study.

When announcing construction works were to restart, Motuma Mekasa insured that his country took Egypt’s concerns very seriously. He however clearly expressed his disapproval with Egyptian media who are diabolizing the project. The Ethiopian minister has in fact said Egypt and Sudan would be the major sellers of the power produced at the dam which is half way to completion.

Gwladys Johnson