Egypt’s Permanent Committee for Regulating the Revenue of the Nile River held its periodic meeting on Sunday to follow up on the procedures for achieving optimal management of water resources.
Egypt suffers from a scarcity of water resources and needs about 114 billion cubic meters annually, while the available water resources amount to 74 billion cubic meters.
The Nile water accounts for more than 90 percent of Egypt’s needs or 55.5 billion cubic meters.
It is expecting a shortage in its water share as Ethiopia begins operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River.
Sunday’s meeting was chaired by Irrigation Minister Mohamad Abdel Aty and attended by the executive leaders of the ministry and the National Center for Water Research.
Abdel Aty directed the ministry’s departments to raise the level of readiness to ensure the provision of water and review the rehabilitation of canals and drains to ensure the ability of the waterways network to provide the water needs.
The Minister urged the Committee to hold periodic sessions to take the necessary measures to manage the river’s revenue and monitor the water situation in a way that enables the Ministry’s departments to manage the water system in a dynamic way.
Meanwhile, Addis Ababa is expected to start the third phase of filling the dam’s reservoir during the rainy season in July.
The latest satellite image of the dam revealed new details confirming the low water reserves in the dam’s lake and the failure of the turbine’s operation process.
According to the Egyptian water resources expert, Dr. Abbas Sharaky, the dam’s reserves decreased by one billion cubic meters during the past three weeks to seven billion cubic meters.
The image also showed that the turbine Ethiopia started its operation on Feb 20, as a first stage for electricity production, has stopped working.
