After a closed door meeting that lasted nearly 15 hours the Tripartite High Level Ministerial meeting of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agreed on several ongoing operations along the eastern Nile basin.
Chief diplomats, water ministers and security leaders of the three countries met at the Inter Continental Bistro Hotel from noon on Tuesday May 15 until three in the morning of May 16 to finish negotiating.
Since the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) at Tiqur Abay (Blue Nile) began in 2011, officials from the three countries have held several meetings. However, this is only the second one held at such a high level. The first was in Khartoum, Sudan in early April.
According a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia (MoFA), one crucial deal the three countries agreed to was to form a joint infrastructure fund.
In regards to the infrastructure fund high level high officials from the three countries agreed to work out the most suitable modality to establish the Fund.
In 2016 when they met at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt leaders of the three countries agreed to establish an infrastructure fund to provide for joint infrastructure and development proposals in their respective nations.
According the organization’s statement the MoFA Tripartite High Level Ministerial Meeting accomplished successful agreements. The countries agreed to establish an independent, national, scientific study group to analyze the filling of GERD. They also agreed to present queries and observations to the consultancy.
This was seen as a good move for the region because it helps establish trust based on cooperation among the affected countries.
Experts, who declined to be mentioned, stated that the outcome of the latest meeting indicated that the dialogue between the three countries became about filling the dam with water as opposed to the construction project.
“During the filling, countries including Ethiopia, took into consideration the mutual benefits of the region,” one expert said. Meles Alem, Spokesperson of MoFA, told Capital that the three countries been agreed to form a National Independent Scientific Research Study Group made up of five experts from the three countries to look at the water filling process.
The countries will establish a National Independent Scientific Research Study Group. The mandate of the group is to discuss ways to enhance the level of understanding and cooperation among the three countries with regard to GERD, including discussing and developing various scenarios related to the filling and operation rules in accordance with the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of shared water resources while taking all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm.
The group is expected to hold nine meetings and submit the outcome of its deliberations within three months for consideration of the water ministers who will report to the high level ministerial body.
“The agreed minutes reached last night (early morning of May 16) are an example of compromise between countries that are seeking joint solutions for common challenges,” Ana Cascão, independent researcher working on Nile hydro politics, told Capital via email, “Similar to previous Nile agreements, it includes ambiguous clauses- which hopefully will turn out to be an example of constructive ambiguity and not the opposite,” Ana added.
Meles, who is delighted by the outcome of the closed door meeting, said that Ethiopia has insisted the downstream countries undertake the water filling study by scientists and experts comprised from the three countries as opposed to a third party. “Our proposal has been accepted by both countries,” he added.
In its statement MoFA said that the agreements reached during the second Tripartite High Level Ministerial Meeting is a step forward for Ethiopia.
The independent researcher working on Nile hydro politics said that if it helps to speed up decisions on the most urgent issue – alternative scenarios for the GERD filling – then it is a good outcome.
“Time is not on the side of any of the parties, therefore mutual trust must take the front seat – now, and not later,” she told Capital.
According to the statement of Egyptian MoFA, a delegation led by Sameh Shoukry, minister of MoFA, met with PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) on Tuesday morning before they went to Tripartite High Level Ministerial Meeting. MoFA of Egypt stated that the Egyptian delegation formally invited Abiy to visit Cairo as soon as possible.
The next meeting shall take place in Cairo early July.
Dam filling study, joint fund for infrastructure agreed during GERD meetings
Federal Police and Oromia Police forces are searching for the culprits
Deep Kamara, country manager of Dangote Cement Ethiopia, his secretary Beakal Alelign and their driver, Tsegaye Gidey, were killed by unknown people while driving on their way back to Addis Ababa from the site of the cement factory on Wednesday afternoon.
The Command Post, Federal Police and Oromia Police forces are searching for the culprits who murdered the employees of Dangote Cement Ethiopia, near the factory 80km west of Addis Ababa.
Deep Kamara, in his late sixties is a father of two children. The remains of Kamara were flown to New Dehli, India, on Thursday night.
Beakal Alelign’s body was laid to rest in Ferensay Abo Church on Thursday. Beakal in her late thirties joined Dangote Cement in June 2015. She was married and a mother of three.
The body of Tsegaye Gidey was sent to Adigrat town, Tigray Regional State, where his family lives. Tsegaye, in his mid-thirties, was married.
Dangote Cement, owned by billionaire Nigerian Aliko Dangote, is Ethiopia’s biggest cement producer.
Federal Housing Cooperation to increase rental fees, roll out new apartments
The newly restructured Federal Housing Cooperation is working to evaluate the over 17,000 houses it owns in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. After that occurs the organization plans to increase rental prices. Currently the Corporation rents a single residential house for a minimum monthly price of 40 birr to a maximum of USD 7,360 a month for embassies and diplomatic missions.
The increase is due to the increasing market price. Residents have the option of fully or partially sharing the price for maintenance on the house. Kibrom Gebremedhin, who handles communication for the Corporation told Capital the revision began years ago and went through some bottlenecks due to restructuring at the Corporation but that they have almost finished the revision work.
“I believe we will announce the new rental fee soon after we finish revisions,” he said.
He added that the Corporation is in the finishing stages of taking a census to identify who lives in the houses.
“We are in the finishing stages of the counting process and we have found that some people are living in the houses illegally as they have no contract. Others are making illegal modifications to the homes so we are going to take legal action if we discover these things are happening.”
Kibrom says the Corporation also plans to build 3,200 houses in Addis Ababa this year. They will be 9 to 21 stories high buildings and will be rented to government employees.
The homes will be built on 14.4 hectares of land and will consist of around 70 apartments in Aware, Gofa, Ledeta, Adwa, Tore Hailoch and Balderas.
This will be the first time the Corporation has built new apartments since the downfall of the Derg regime.
“We have prepared some land to begin construction, it has been difficult to relocate people from the homes in places we plan to build on. Some people are positive and understand our vision but others are fighting relocation,” he said.
The apartments will be residential and commercial units and will have basements, parking and social service areas.
The Corporation was initially established in 1993 and re-established in March 2017 with five branches and a capital of 33.2 billion birr.
Lack of inputs, hard currency lead to bottled water shortage
Ethiopia’s bottled water business is feeling the pinch of the hard currency shortage and an imbalance between a growing number of bottlers and lack of needed ‘inputs’ for the bottled water.
Bottled water companies have cut production and working hour shifts and consumers have noticed a shortage of bottled water in the capital city recently.
Distributers Capital interviewed reported a shortage of bottled water over the last week.
“In the last few days I have finished the entire distribution between 8 and 10 am. Normally it would take me the entire day to finish distributing the water,” a sales person told Capital. The product is usually delivered on medium sized pickup trucks.
Shemeles Ajema, Sales Manager at Abebe Dinku Water & Non-Alcoholic Industry, producer of Top Water, said that in recent years the bottled water market grew by 13 percent but this year the bottled water industry has grown by 38 percent.
“In the past three quarters of the budget year nine new water bottlers joined the market and some of the existing factories have expanded their capacity and seven additional new companies are expected to begin operating in the next four months,” the water sector expert, who consult several new water bottlers, said.
He said that the growing demand for bottled water has encouraged more investors. Now there are 67 water bottling companies in the country, with most of them focused on central Ethiopia.
By the next Ethiopian new year expectations are that number will increase to 74 bottled water companies. Not only are there more new companies but existing producers are significantly expanding their production capacity and installing new lines, according to experts in the business.
“Even though the number of bottlers have increased significantly, product scarcity has been observed in the market,” an expert said.
Shemeles argued that currently the limited number of input producers and the hard currency shortage has forced factories to use 46 percent of their capacity on average.
He said that a label or polysheet scarcity in the market would force the bottlers to suspend their production.
Water bottlers say some factories have been forced to limit the types of products they offer for example producing only a half litter or one litter bottle because they have limited access to inputs.
The capacity of input suppliers is not enough to cover the demand of the existing bottlers and at the same time new producers are also looking for more inputs.
Some of those who are involved in the sector are also claiming that some of the input suppliers are also hording the inputs due to frequent price increases of raw material.
“Producers are not growing as much as the bottlers. Maybe the number of input producers has increased by only two or three,” experts said.
Experts added that in the past few months the price of inputs has significantly increased. “In the past couple of months the price of inputs has increased by up to 80 percent”.
Since the prices keep rising the suppliers have become more cautions and are hoarding products and evaluating the market, according to experts. The input price increase has been observed on the international market as well. Locally the increase in prices has been attributed to the devaluation of the birr.
“This is likely the reason for the decrease in production in the water industry,” Shemeles said.
The current situation has also frustrated the water bottlers, as they have not raised water prices despite the rising prices of inputs.
“About one birr increased on the price of a raw single bottle but bottlers have increased only a penny on their single bottled water,” the expert said.
In the past two months the water bottlers have revised their price on the packed product, while experts argue that it is incomparable with the increase in input prices.
Experts said that the sector has created at least 20,000 jobs, but they argue that the government considers it a luxury business.
“Since the government does not considered it a priority industry the sector is not getting adequate attention in relation to hard currency allocation and controlling the hoarding,” experts added.
Experts argue that the bottlers have to work jointly to convince the government and secure benefits that they give to others sectors.
Shemeles said that some of the bottlers are now working to form an association to represent the sector.
