Monday, 27 May 2013
Ethiopia’s Millennium Dam is meant to serve power generation and will not reduce Egypt’s quota of Nile water, Ethiopian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Berhane Gebre-Christos said.
In press statements on the fringe of the Addis Ababa-hosted African summit, he said Ethiopia does not intend to harm Egypt’s interests.
Ethiopia as an upstream Nile country cannot benefit from the Nile in agriculture like Egypt, but it can only get a share from it in power generation, a process which does not consume water.
He added that Egypt and Sudan can also benefit from the Millennium Dam in terms of irrigation and agriculture, and there will be a surplus in the generated power that could be exported to our neighbors.
He said “we know that 84 percent of the Nile water comes from Ethiopia, but we are well aware that the Nile water is not owned by Ethiopia”.
He said relations with Egypt are extremely important for Ethiopia, adding that the current Egyptian regime adopts a positive trend based on negotiations on bilateral cooperation that serves mutual interests.
Source: http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Story.aspx?sid=68319