The Nour Party announced on Wednesday that it will form a committee to look into the current issue of Ethiopia’s Nile dam project and its implications for Egypt.
The news comes a day after Ethiopia announced it will begin diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s two major tributaries, as part of its project to build a new dam, known as the Renaissance Dam.
The Salafist party’s committee will study the effects of this decision and the agricultural, industrial, economic and social repercussions, Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website reported. It will then present its findings to the heads of the party to determine what steps to take.
Moreover, a delegation will be formed, made up of diplomats, specialists and interested political figures, to visit Ethiopia, in an attempt to assist the government in the current crisis, deputy head of the party's culture committee, Ahmed Khalil, stated on the Nour Party’s official website.
The committee will include a number of party members, including deputy secretary of the party Magdi Selim; head of the Nour Party block in the Shura Council Abdullah Badran; undersecretary for the agriculture and irrigation committee Ahmed Tawfiq; head of the Shura Council’s African affairs committee Abdelfattah Shaheen; and head of the human rights committee Mohamed El-Azzab.
The majority of the Nile water that reaches Egypt and Sudan originates in the Blue Nile.
The Renaissance Dam has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government, amid sensitivities about any effect on the volume of water that will reach Egypt if the project is completed.
Egypt will need an additional 21 billion cubic metres of water per year by 2050, on top of its current 55 billion metres quota, to meet the water needs of a projected population of 150 million people, according to Egypt's National Planning Institute.
Short link: