Egypt to build world’s largest desalination plant amid deadlock in nile dam talks.
Nile river, which is the longest river in the world. This river has two Major tributaries. It’s tributaries are the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile originates from the Tana Lake in Ethiopia. The White Nile originates from Burundi or Rwanda. The Nile river passes through countries Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo , Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi.
Nile dam talks were done by Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. This Dam is essential for Ethiopia. The reason being electrification and development purpose. Ethiopia is building a dam on the blue Nile river for its development purpose but the 3 African nations Egypt , Sudan and Ethiopia are not ready to come into an agreement. Ethiopia and Egypt however have difference when it comes to the $4.5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)
Egypt on the other hand announced the construction of the world’s largest water desalination plant. Salt water is desalinated i.e removal of salt and mineral components in order for consumption purpose. The desalinated water can be used for irrigation and drinking purposes. The main purpose of the plant is to meet Egypt’s water needs and optimal utilisation of agricultural wastewater. This plant will be built in Bahret-Bagar located in Sharqiyah governorate. 
This world’s largest water desalination plant Project is estimated to cost 18 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.15 billion). There were a lot of political controversies on the funding for GERD.
Shady samir, chairman of enterprise Sigma technologies, noted that projects like these would put Egypt in the second place after China for optimising the utilisation of wastewater.
However, many Egyptian criticized the project on social media saying that it was being implemented because of egypts failure in Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations. A political geography professor at Cairo University Ahmed Ibrahim said, This desalination plant is very much needed for meeting Egypt’s water necessities. He also said, even if there is a possibility for a civil war to break in Ethiopia regarding GERD, that doesn’t mean Egypt has to stop the construction of the water desalination plant. He said that Egypt will never backoff and fight for its rights even if Egypt covers all its water needs in the coming future.
