Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Wednesday said the massive hydroelectric Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being built by Ethiopia is an existential issue that could affect millions of Egyptians, reported The National News.
Addressing a news conference after talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the Egyptian president said they reviewed developments related to the Nile dam as an “existential issue that affects the lives of millions of Egyptians”.
El Sisi said the dam represents a model for Egypt’s support of the rights of Nile basin nations to achieve full exploitation of its water resources without negatively impacting the rights of other nations.
He reiterated Egypt’s call to enter a legally binding deal regulating the filling and operation of the dam and based on international law with Ethiopia and Sudan. He also berated Ethiopia for what he described as its unilateral actions on the issue of the dam and “imposing a fait accompli that ignores the basic rights of people”.
Ethiopia continues to refuse to enter a legally binding agreement on the dam, arguing that guidelines should suffice. It has also rejected Egypt and Sudan’s suggestions to involve the United States, European Union, and the United Nations in negotiations over the dam, insisting it was an African issue that must be dealt with inside the continent.
More than a decade of on-and-off negotiations has been unsuccessful in reaching a deal, with the last round of talks breaking down acrimoniously in April.
The Egyptian government is deeply alarmed that the GERD would reduce its share of Nile water significantly, severely disrupting its vital agriculture sector and wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sudan says it needs to have real-time data on the dam’s operations to ensure that its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile operate efficiently and to avoid ruinous floods.
