Experts affirmed that Ethiopia began the process of the second filling of the Renaissance Dam 40 days ago, and that the talk now must offer new paths, and put my downstream country in a difficult position in front of Ethiopian insistence, especially since the time factor is very sensitive.
“Ethiopia has already started the process of the second filling of the dam,” Dr. Mohamed Hafez, professor of dam engineering, said in an interview with the evening program on Al Jazeera Mubasher.
He pointed out that the Sudanese government announced a few days ago that Ethiopia had started the second filling, adding that the newly taken pictures confirm this, by increasing the size of the lake and the height of the middle corridor by about 4 meters.
Hafez
A professor of dams at Cairo University said that the second filling mechanism of the Renaissance Dam differs from the previous one, because the daily flow of water is greater than the capacity of the lower outlets, which means a degree of degrees of (forced filling), which was not deliberated by Ethiopia, but rather as a result of increased rainfall in the Blue Nile Basin.
Dr. Abbas Sharaqi, professor of geology at Cairo University, agrees on the issue of the actual start of the second mobilization. In his interview with Al-Jazeera Mubasher, he says, “The opening of the first gate of the Renaissance Dam was on April 14th, from among the beginnings of the second storage process of the dam, and then three days later the second gate was opened, A day later, the water crossing over the central corridor stopped and it has been ready to lay the concrete since April 18.
“40 days ago the filling began, and the middle passage was raised at least 4 meters, and the volume of the lake decreased slightly before it began to rise again,” he added. According to the pictures taken today, Saturday, its size becomes similar to its size before the gates were opened, which means that the lake now has approximately 5 billion cubic meters of water.
And a professor of geology at Cairo University continued, “By the end of next June, the volume of water in the lake will reach 6 billion cubic meters, to increase in July with an increase in the flow of rain, which reaches 7 billion cubic meters per month,” stressing that Egypt wants Ethiopia to store 13.5 One billion cubic meters of water, complete and undiminished, but what Cairo wants depends on an agreement between Ethiopia and the two downstream countries.
Regarding the difference between filling with an agreement and filling without an agreement with the two downstream countries, Al-Sharaqi said, “There is no dispute on the water side, but on the political level, it means that Ethiopia dominates the dam and imposes its will.”
In the context, Dr. Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Mustafa, a consultant and expert on Sudanese dams, said that the flow of the river in current days is slightly more than 60 million cubic meters, which raises the water level in the Renaissance Dam lake, which confirms the actual start of the second filling, but he pointed out that this filling is irregular. Until now.
The Executive Committee of the ruling party of prosperity in Ethiopia has pledged to move forward with the second mobilization of the Renaissance Dam scheduled for next July.
A statement by the committee stated that Ethiopia is the source of the Nile River and has the ability to enhance the situation in the Horn of Africa and East Africa, and indicated that there are countries, which he did not name, that believe that Ethiopia’s strength and position in the region may limit the interests of these countries.
The statement added that the enemies of Ethiopia are seeking to ignite wars with its neighbors, to weaken the Ethiopian economy and stop its major projects, and that the main plan is to complete the Renaissance Dam project, and work hard to restore Ethiopia’s influence in the Red Sea.
On the statements of the Ethiopian Prosperity Party, Yassin Ahmed, head of the Institute for People’s Diplomacy, said in an intervention with Al-Jazeera Mubasher that the party’s statements are not politicized nor misleading, but rather to reassure the Ethiopian street in exchange for Egyptian statements and pressures that “may disturb the Ethiopian citizen,” as he described it.
Regarding the start of the second filling process, Yassin said that all that has been raised up to the moment is just speculation and speculation that lacks accuracy, noting that Addis Ababa has not yet authorized the implementation of the operation.
The head of the Institute for People’s Diplomacy stressed that the second filling does not represent the slightest harm to the two downstream countries, despite the continuous Egyptian talk about damages to its water security as a result of the second mobilization.
The evening program showed on the Al-Jazeera Mubasher screen new images of the dam showing the latest developments in it, including the western block of the dam (responsible for passing the waters of the two downstream countries, and it also has a number of turbine heads) and the eastern block (and it has a number of turbines that will generate electricity for Ethiopia, and it is planned to operate At least two turbines during the coming days), as well as the middle corridor, which saw the change of water path through two holes to increase control of the water flow.
The Renaissance Dam Lake will absorb about 76 million cubic meters of water, which included 5 million cubic meters during the first phase, and the second phase will include 13.5 billion cubic meters.