Date: Friday, 04 October 2024
Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty said Egypt is not a “helpless nation” and has a clear vision and mechanisms to deal with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam's (GERD) negative repercussions on the country, indicating that "not all actions taken by the state are publicly announced."
"The primary goal for us is to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the risks of this [Ethiopian] dam on Egypt," Abdelatty added.
"We have clearly announced that Egypt will take measures per international law to defend its water interests if any harm occurs to its [Egypt's] national security," the foreign minister stressed.
Abdelatty’s remarks came during a meeting, led by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, with prominent intellectuals in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss several pressing issues.
Egypt and Ethiopia have been locked in a dispute over the filling and operations of the GERD for over a decade, with Addis Ababa refusing to sign any legally binding agreement that would safeguard Egypt's water rights and needs.
Meanwhile, PM Madbouly noted that the dam project was explicitly announced in April 2011, and its implementation began amid Egypt's January 2011 revolution and subsequent developments — the hard conditions known to everyone at that time.
At the time, Egypt was keen on the regional dynamics and its relations with all countries in the continent, Madbouly added.
“Hence, we have been working on how to engage with this project [GERD], emphasizing that we are not against development ... We always affirm that we are not against it [development], but we are against anything that negatively impacts Egypt,” he emphasized.
Madbouly said we approached the project in light of these constants.
"Our main challenge and primary goal is to protect Egypt's share of the Nile River waters, which is known to everyone, and to maintain this quantity,” the prime minister stated.
Egypt's water deficit reaches 55 percent of its water needs, which is 120 billion cubic metres (bcm).
According to the 1929 Nile Water Agreement, Egypt receives about 55.5 bcm of the Nile water, while Sudan gets 18.5 bcm.
Egypt’s annual share of water has reached 500 m3 per person annually — while the UN defines water scarcity as 1,000 m3 per person annually — and is more than 90 percent dependent on water flow from the River Nile, according to previous remarks by the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam.
Therefore, Madbouly said any new developments that could affect this share would lead the Egyptian state to handle the situation completely differently.
“Consequently, we are addressing this issue with all available measures, including diplomatic and security ones,” Madbouly noted.
Cairo will keep a “close watch” on Ethiopia's filling and operation of GERD, FM Abdelatty said Saturday in his statement at the high-level General Debate of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“Anyone who believes that Egypt will turn a blind eye or tolerate a serious threat to its survival is mistaken,” Abdelatty affirmed.
Moreover, he pointed out that Cairo has participated in negotiations for 13 years without any progress, stressing Ethiopia's continuous unilateral actions that contravene international law.
Ethiopia has completed the fifth filling of the GERD's 74 bcm reservoir, along with all previous fillings, without coordination with the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan, causing diplomatic tensions.
The multibillion-dollar project is nearly complete, and according to Ethiopian officials, the reservoir's storage is expected to increase to 70-71 bcm by December.
