By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA

 An Ethiopian official said Saturday that a $2.6 million study has been launched to develop the Baro-Akobo-Sobat sub-basin, which stretches across Ethiopia and South Sudan.

"The study incorporates power generation and sale, irrigation, basin rehabilitation as well as wetland management," Fekahmed Negash, Executive Director of the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO), told The Anadolu Agency.

He said funds for the study have been secured from the African Development Bank and African Water Facility.

"The study will take 21 months to complete," he said.

According to Negash, the study covers the trans-boundary implications of the projects that are meant to develop the Nile Basin and ensures cooperation among the riparian countries.

The Ethiopian official, meanwhile, said that Egypt was showing signs of returning to the Nile Basin Initiative.

Egypt and Sudan withdrew from the initiative after five upstream countries signed in 2010 the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), also known as the Entebbe Agreement, with a view to increasing their access to Nile water.

Last month, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan signed a declaration of principles in Khartoum on a controversial dam being built by Addis Ababa on the Nile.

For several months, Ethiopia's multibillion-dollar dam project had been at the center of a diplomatic row between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

While Ethiopia views the project as necessary to its economic development, Egypt fears it could lead to a marked reduction in its historical share of Nile water.