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Egypt calls on Russia to build desalination plants as Nile dam talks stall

Egypt has recently agreed with the Russian Rusnano Group to develop its local components and build more desalination plants to face the water scarcity that could result from the Ethiopian dam being built on the Blue Nile.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY NATASHA YAZBECK Egyptians women queue in line at a water cistern (unseen) to fill their containers with drinking water at al-Rahawe village some 40 kilometres northeast Cairo on May 27, 2010. Thousands of Egyptians living just a stone's throw from the Nile suffer supply and sanitation problems as their government becomes increasingly entangled in a war over water with up-river nations.   AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI (Photo credit should read KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Egyptian government has taken unprecedented interest in seawater desalination, especially with the continuing failure of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations and Ethiopia’s completion of 75% of the dam construction.

Egypt has used Russian expertise, in cooperation with the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), the Egyptian armed forces’ Engineering Authority and the University of Alexandria, to promote the local production of seawater desalination. 

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