The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said on Wednesday that water abundance seen in front of the Renaissance Dam is due to the high level of construction in the dam, which led to the formation of a lake, as the amount of water flooding exceeds the drainage, and will not affect Egypt’s water security level. He reiterated that the quantities of water present in that lake do not represent any damage to Egypt’s water quota. Egypt fears the dam will affect its historic Nile water share of 55 billion square meters, which it has had access to since the historic 1959 agreement with Sudan. Ethiopia, meanwhile, has reassured Cairo that its water share will not be affected. In 2011, Ethiopia started construction on the Renaissance Dam over the Blue Nile River, one of the major sources of the water that forms the River Nile downstream.

Source: Egypt Independent July 13, 2017 13:18 UTC