Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia sign contracts on GERD Dam impact studies

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia sign contracts on GERD Dam impact studies

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September 19, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Technical teams of Sudan, Egypt and
Ethiopia on Monday have Initialed the additional studies agreement of
the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The final signing ceremony
will take place in Khartoum on Tuesday.

JPEG - 28.4 kb
A man walks over a bridge 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 (REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)

Last year, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia signed a declaration of
principles on the dam project that tacitly approves the dam
construction but calls for technical studies aimed at safeguarding the
water quotas of the three riparian states.

On September 22, 2014, a tripartite committee from the three countries
proposed the conduction of two additional studies on the dam project,
the first one on the effect of the dam on the water quota of Sudan and
Egypt and the second one to examine the dam’s ecological, economic and
social impacts of the dam on Sudan and Egypt.

The French engineering consultancy Artelia and BRL groups have been
selected to undertake the dam impact studies. The U.K.-based law firm
Corbett & Co was selected to manage the legal affairs of the
tripartite committee.

In a press statement after the initial signing, the head of the
Sudanese technical team, Saif al-Din Hamad said there are no
differences between Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt on the additional
studies items.

“There are no differences between the consultancy and the legal
offices on the final contract of the technical studies and the signing
was delayed to enable the ministers of water resources in the three
countries to attend the ceremony,” he pointed.

On his part, the head of the Egyptian Technical part, Ahmed Baha, said
that all the contracting documents will be signed by the heads of the
technical committees of the three countries stressing that the
observations of all the counties have been taken into account.

“The final contract with the consultancy offices will take place on
Tuesday in the presences of ministers of water resources in the three
countries and the representatives of the consultancy offices,” said
Baha pointing that the representatives of the French Artelia and BRL
groups and U.K.-based law firm Corbett & Co are on their way to
Khartoum to attend the final contracts signing ceremony.

Earlier in September, the meeting of the tripartite technical
committee was delayed due to differences between Artelia and BRL and
the legal consultant Corbett & Co.

The consultancy office will study the environmental and ecological,
social and economical effects of the dam.

The multi-billion dollar dam is being constructed on the Blue Nile,
about 20 kilometers from the Sudanese border, and has a capacity of 74
billion cubic meters, and is expected to generate electrical power of
up to 6,000 megawatts.

Egypt is concerned that the dam could reduce its quota of 55.5 billion
cubic meters of the Nile water, while the Ethiopian side maintains
that the dam is primarily built to produce electricity and will not
harm Sudan and Egypt.

Last May, Ethiopia’s Minister of Information and Communication
Getachew Reda said the GERD is almost 70% complete.

(ST)