CAIRO: Dutch consultancy firm Deltares withdrew from developing the technical studies required to determine the impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Al-Ahram reported Thursday.
The news website of Al-Ahram quoted an email sent to Ahram Hebdo from the firm saying that the “conditions imposed by the Tripartite National Committee (TNC) did not provide sufficient guarantees for Deltares that an independent high-quality study could be carried out.”
It is worth mentioning that the two assigned French and Dutch consultancy firms, BRL and Deltares, respectively, failed to meet the September 5 deadline set by the TNC to submit an edited version of a joint technical study on the dam. The study was scheduled to be reviewed by experts from Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum.
On Sept. 5, Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Hossam Moghazi said in a statement that Egypt is “concerned” over the unreached agreement between the two companies assigned to make the studies per the Declaration of Principles of the Renaissance Dam that was signed between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in March 2015 in Khartoum.
The TNC, tasked with negotiating establishing the dam without jeopardizing the water share of Egypt and Sudan, had met in Addis Ababa Aug. 20-21 to discuss the delay in reaching an agreement on the technical study presented by the consultation firms.
The controversial dam has been a source of tension between the two nations for years; Ethiopia claims the dam is necessary for its development, while Cairo claims the dam will cause an unacceptable reduction in Egypt’s share of Nile waters.