Egypt raises 'extreme concern' about Nile dam with Ethiopia

  • 19/01/2018

  • News 24 (South Africa)

Cairo - Egypt's president says he expressed his "extreme concern" over the lack of progress in talks over the construction of a massive Nile dam in Ethiopia during a meeting with that country's visiting prime minister. Egypt fears the dam, which is about 60% complete, will significantly reduce its vital share of the Nile's waters. Ethiopia has downplayed those fears and said it needs the dam for its own economic development. A grim-faced President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi emerged from a meeting in Cairo on Thursday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, saying cooperation between Nile basin countries should not be a zero-sum game. Al-Sisi says Ethiopia has rejected an Egyptian proposal for World Bank experts to mediate the dispute. Egypt depends on the Nile for almost all of its water needs.