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Tripartite committee meeting on GERD concludes without reaching results Although meeting did not come with any results, but ministers renewed their commitment to continue discussions, says Abdel Atti
The meeting of the tripartite committee on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) taking place in Addis Ababa concluded without reaching outstanding points, said Egypt's Ministry of Irrigation in official statement on Wednesday. Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel Atti headed to Ethiopia on Tuesday to continue negotiations over the technical side of the Dam's filling with his Sudanese and Ethiopian counterparts. Abdel Atti said although the meeting did not come with any results, but the ministers renewed their commitment to continue discussions to reach a satisfactory agreement soon for all parties over the filling of the dam. He noted that the meeting was conducted to discuss the disputed issues in order to reduce the gap that emerged during the last period and came as part of the commitment of the three countries to examine the best possible scenarios to fill the dam without harming the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan, according to the ministry's statement. The minister added that there could be some differences among the three sides, but the continual of discussions about these differences is a reflection of their insistence to reach an agreement that would fulfil the aspirations of the three countries. Construction of the GERD started in April 2011. However, Egypt has expressed concerns that the construction of the dam could negatively affect its historic Nile water share of 55bn sqm, which it has had access to since the historic 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan.
