Ethiopia invites foreign media to Renaissance Dam site

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ADDIS ABABA – The Ethiopian government has invited foreign media correspondents to the construction site of the multibillion-dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Hydroelectric Dam.
“We decided to take the media to the very spot of construction in order to provide them with the opportunity to get first-hand information,” the government’s Communication Affairs Office wrote in the itinerary program.
The Office is facilitating the journey for crews representing 13 different channels.
Two Anadolu Agency journalists are among the 22 media people travelling to Guba in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, some 970km west of the capital Addis Ababa.
Launched in April 2, 2011, the dam project is approaching its third anniversary.
An Ethiopian diplomatic source, meanwhile, asserted that differences with Egypt regarding the dam are technical, not political.
Such differences, insisted the source, will be resolved through dialogue between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, in addition to the experts’ committee.
“Ethiopia has, therefore, not accepted any international mediation in this regard,” said the Ethiopian diplomatic source.
The source denied international media reports of accepting any offers of mediation between Ethiopia and Egypt, including from Israel.
The dam project has caused tensions with Egypt, which fears a potential reduction of its own share of Nile water.
Addis Ababa, however, insists the dam will benefit downstream states Sudan and Egypt, both of which can purchase the electricity it will generate.