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Egypt fears Ethiopia Renaissance Dam threatens water supply

The celebration for the 54th anniversary of Egypt’s Aswan Dam have been overshadowed by concerns over water shortages because of the Ethiopian project.

Water gushes out from pipes by the construction of Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda, some 40 km (25 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, June 28, 2013. Egypt fears the $4.7 billion dam, that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people, who mostly live in the Nile valley and delta. Picture taken June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri (ETHIOPIA - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY ENERGY ENVIRONMENT) - RTX115KE
Water gushes out from pipes by the construction of Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam in Guba woreda, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, June 28, 2013. — REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

Each year on Jan. 9, Egyptians celebrate the anniversary of the 1960 construction of the Aswan Dam, during the reign of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser. But this year’s 54th anniversary was quite different, tinged with fear about the dangerous effects that the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — intended to be built on the Blue Nile — would have on the operations of the Aswan. The latter might be put out of commission for up to two years.

The Egyptian press substituted its hosting of surviving Aswan Dam builders and broadcasts of patriotic songs about its construction with discussions of the Renaissance Dam crisis and its deleterious effects on Egypt’s water supply, as well as its repercussions for the electricity output of the Aswan Dam. An emergency meeting of the Egyptian National Defense Council was convened under the leadership of interim President Adly Mansour to discuss the implications of the crisis and ways to minimize the Ethiopian dam’s negative effects on Egypt.

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