President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hossam Maghazi on Thursday night to discuss the national plan to tackle floods in south Sinai, as well as the ongoing preparations for the implementation of the million acres reclamation plan. The plan involves the management of water resources for irrigation, including the drilling of wells and relying on solar energy, reported state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. According to a presidential statement, El Sisi expressed Egypt's eagerness to strengthen relations with the Nile Basin countries in all fields, especially water, through work and mutual cooperation to maximise the benefit of the tributaries of the Nile River, pointing out to the importance of returning the Nile as it was throughout the ages, through cooperation, brotherhood and common development of the countries and peoples of the Nile basin. The minister is to travel on Friday to Ethiopia, heading a delegation comprised of dam experts from the ministry, to attend the first meeting of the National Tripartite on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will also be attended by the ministers of Sudan and Ethiopia. Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed in late August to conduct studies on the effects of the GERD under a six-month deadline. Egypt and Ethiopia have been locked in a diplomatic dispute over GERD, since Egypt fears that the dam will affect its share of Nile water.
