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Water wars intensify between Egypt, Ethiopia

Water gushes out from pipes by the construction of Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda, some 40 km (25 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, June 28, 2013. Egypt fears the $4.7 billion dam, that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people, who mostly live in the Nile valley and delta. Picture taken June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri (ETHIOPIA - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY ENERGY ENVIRONMENT) - RTX115KE

Water gushes out from pipes by the construction of Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda, some 40 km (25 miles) from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, June 28, 2013. Egypt fears the $4.7 billion dam, that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people, who mostly live in the Nile valley and delta. Picture taken June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri (ETHIOPIA – Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY ENERGY ENVIRONMENT) – RTX115KE


CAIRO — Egyptians are worried about uncertainties surrounding Ethiopia’s schedule for storing Nile water behind the walls of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
he latest satellite photos show Ethiopia is preparing for storage, especially since the country pumped water into two turbines to generate electricity, according to Alaa el-Nahry, vice president of the UN-affiliated Regional Center for Space Studies and Egypt’s representative to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
In December, Nahry said he expects Addis Ababa to actually start storing water in the reservoir in June.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation disputed Nahry’s statements. Minister Hossam Moghazy said Jan. 31 that no water is being stored behind the dam, and won’t be until the current technical studies between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are completed.

Moghazy’s statements spread doubt among water experts and former officials at the Egyptian government, according to Nader Noureddine, a water and irrigation expert in the faculty of agriculture at Cairo University. He told Al-Monitor that Addis Ababa will start generating electricity in October, which contradicts the minister’s statements that water storage is suspended until the studies are completed.

The National Tripartite Committee, which was formed in August 2014 and includes Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, has yet to sign contracts with the consulting firms in charge of conducting two studies on the hydraulic, social, environmental and economic impacts of the dam on Egypt and Sudan. Officials expect the studies to be conducted within eight to 15 months.

Haitham Awad, head of the Hydraulic and Irrigation Department at Alexandria University, told Al-Monitor that as of Jan. 29, Ethiopia had not started storing water yet. He based his statements on satellite photos. However, he said Ethiopia is getting ready to start trial operations of the dam, and he expects water storage to begin soon.Read more: Almonitor