Ethiopia’s in-construction Renaissance Dam along the Nile River will not affect Egypt’s share of the Nile water, said the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign affairs Berhane Gebre Christos on Monday.
“The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project is created to generate electricity and not for agricultural purposes,” the Ethiopian minister told reporters on the sidelines of the African Union Summit currently taking place in Addis Ababa.
“We do not seek to harm Egypt by building this dam, Ethiopia does not claim one bit that it possesses the Nile River alone,” Christos added, stressing that the project will not reduce Egypt's share of Nile water.
Ethiopia announced in 2011 its plan to build the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa on the main stream of the Nile river. A decision that raised concerns about water supply in Cairo.
The Renaissance Dam is built along the river that provides Egypt with about 60 percent of its annual 55 million cubic metres of Nile water.
Egypt and Ethiopia are members of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a partnership among Nile states aimed at sharing the river's socio-economic benefits and promoting regional security.
