Sudan’s president aims to ease Egypt concerns over Nile dam

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s President Omar Bashir said on Thursday that the construction of Ethiopia’s controversial Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile River would not impact water supplies to Egypt as feared by Cairo.

Visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, for his part, said the project was a “winwin” for the peoples of all three countries if it was not politicized.

Construction of the massive dam on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia has poisoned relations between Cairo and Addis Ababa, with Egypt fearing its share of water from the Nile will be hit once the project is completed.

“We are fully committed to ensure that the Egyptian share of the Nile water will not be affected because of the building of the Renaissance Dam,” Bashir said at a joint press conference in Khartoum with Desalegn.

Egypt, which is almost totally reliant on the Nile for agriculture and drinking water, says it has “historic rights” to the Nile guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959.

The treaties grant it 87 percent of the river’s flow, as well as the power to veto upstream projects, according to Cairo. The Blue and the White Nile rivers converge in Khartoum and from there run north into Egypt as the Nile.

Desalegn called for the issue of the dam not to be politicized. “This is more of a technical issue and it is not political,” he said. “If we don’t politicize it, then we will reach a conclusion that is a win-win for all our people.”