Technical committee briefs Premier on progress achieved in GERD meetings

Addis Ababa, January 19, 2020 (FBC) –Ethiopia’s technical committee on GERD today briefed Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed on the progress achieved in the series of meetings held recently.

Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt conducted four trilateral ministerial technical meeting on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the last couple of months alone.

Presenting its report to the Prime Minister, Dr Sheleshi Bekele, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, said the meetings were successful in terms of protecting Ethiopia’s national interests.

“In the negotiations held on the dam, we have reached on agreements that protected Ethiopia’s interests,” he said.

Speaking about the current status of the project, the Minister said that “it is more than 70 % complete.”

According to Dr Sheleshi, the filling process of the dam will start by the end of this year.

He said the government has attached great attention to finalize the project as fast as possible.

Foreign Ministers of the three countries are expected to meet in Washington on January 28-29 to finalize a comprehensive agreement.