Sudan’s parliamentary speaker visits Ethiopia
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
September 15, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – The speaker of the Sudanese Parliament, al Fatih Izz al-Din, has paid a visit to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, over the weekend, where he met his Ethiopian counterpart, Abadula Gemeda.
According to government sources, the two sides conferred on ways of sharing their parliamentary experiences and strengthening parliamentary relations between the two neighbouring East African nations.
Gemeda and al-Din have also discussed ways of enhancing existing existing political, social and economic ties.
The Sudanese speaker, who came to Ethiopian at the invitation of his Ethiopian counterpart, also paid a visit to the country’s controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is built being built along the Nile River near the Sudanese border.
The $4.3 billion power plant project has been the source of a dispute between Ethiopia and lower riparian countries, particularly Egypt.
Egypt fears that the construction of what would be Africa’s largest dam will eventually diminish its water share, which is a source of potable water to millions people in the desert nation.
Ethiopia, however, maintains the dam project will not have significant impact on Nile water shares and that its construction was never meant to harm lower riparian countries.
Due to be completed by 2017, the GERD project will have an electricity generating capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
Meanwhile, both the Egyptian and Sudanese water ministers are scheduled to visit the dam project on 22 September.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, is investing billions of dollars to build a number of power plant projects. It plans to export clean and cheap hydro power processed electricity to neighbouring countries as part of efforts to lift its people out of poverty.
Last month, the water ministers of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan resumed tripartite talks in Khartoum, where the three parties agreed to establish a committee to conduct additional studies on the possible impacts of the Ethiopian dam.
The Tripartite National Committee (TNC) will comprise of four experts from each country and is due to begin its task within the next six months.
According to a recent statement by the Ethiopian government, the water ministers of the three countries have also agreed on the nomination of international experts to provide technical opinions in case of disagreements over the outcome of further studies on the dam.
(ST)