Nile Basin water quota agreements to remain intact

Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid said there are close and strong ties binding the 10 Nile Basin countries.

ÊÊÊ He said Egypt is seeking a new inter-Basin agreement to get an extra quota of the Nile water and through execution of joint ventures to the interest of all the Basin states.

ÊÊÊ Lake Nasser is full to the brim, he said, adding "we have more than 123 billion cubic metres of water in the lake sufficient to face any medium or acute drought."

ÊÊÊ In statements to Good Morning Egypt TV program, he said it is impossible to predict the amount of this year's floods before the end of this month because the rainfalls on the Abyssinian Plateau take nearly one month to come to Egypt via the Blue Nile.

ÊÊÊ "The Toshka Spillway received more than 50 billion cubic metres of the flood water over the past three years," he said.

ÊÊÊ On setting up dams in the Upper Nile areas and whether they will affect the Egyptian and Sudanese quotas, Abu Zeid said that construction of dams to store excessive amounts of water in the Upper Nile is not possible in technical terms.

ÊÊÊ He referred to an agreement with the donor organizations that there will be no financing for any project to be set up on the river Nile that would affect any of the Nile Basin countries.