Nile river coordination office to resume meetings in March in Addis Ababa

Well-informed sources reported on Monday that the regional office in charge of coordinating cooperation and development projects on the Nile river in which Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan are taking part will resume its works in March, 2002 in Addis Ababa.

News reports on Monday quoted an Ethiopia official source as saying that it was decided to establish an official for the technical committee of the Eastern Nile Basin during the meeting for the water resources ministers in the three countries held in Cairo on January 9 and 10 this year.

Arab diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa confirmed this news but gave no additional details.

However, the ministers of water resources in each of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan had discussed this matter during a meeting they held in March 2001 in Khartoum. It was stressed then the need of founding the said office during a meeting held in May 2001 in Geneva, which brought together countries overlooking the Nile with the donor states.

This office in Addis Ababa is planned to include representatives from the three states. It supervises joint water projects shared by the three countries in a program called the work program for the eastern Nile Basin. It includes proposals for preventive regulations from floods as well as water generation projects from the Nile river especially in the area between Ethiopia and Sudan.