The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa will host a two-day technical meeting as of Wednesday on the Ethiopia Renaissance Dam within the framework of the Khartoum agreement between Egypt, Sudana and Ethiopia under which two French firms BRL and Artelia will be in charge of the feasibility studies on the dam.

The meeting will focus on an Egyptian proposal on opening more holes in the dam's body – that were scheduled to be just four – to facilitate water flow to the downstream states like Egypt and Sudan, the Egyptian irrigation minister's adviser said.

An Egyptian technical delegation will head for Addis Ababa on Tuesday to attend the meeting, Alaa Yassin said.

A report will be referred to the ministers of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on the outcome of the technical meeting.

While in Khartoum, the foreign and water resources ministers of the three states agreed that Arterlia company will supersede the Dutch company Deltares that was at odds with BRL and will finalize the studies in about eight months as of signing a new contract with the two companies as of February.

Ethiopia is due to start the first stage of filling the dam’s reservoir in six months, which amounts to 15 billion cubic meters out of a total of 74 billion.

It still insists that the dam aims at generating electricity but both Egypt and Sudan fear it would affect their water quota.

Source: MENA