Egypt, represented by International Minister Badr Abdelatty, has formally condemned on Tuesday 9 September Ethiopia’s inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in a letter to the United Nations (UN) Safety Council.
Egypt asserted that the undertaking stays a unilateral endeavor that violates worldwide legislation and doesn’t alter the authorized framework governing the Jap Nile Basin.
Within the letter, Abdelatty emphasized that Ethiopia’s latest actions add to a sequence of violations, together with a UN Safety Council Presidential Assertion from September 2021.
He reaffirmed Egypt’s steadfast place towards any unilateral Ethiopian measures that compromise the existential pursuits of downstream nations, significantly Egypt and Sudan.
Cairo’s communication to the UN stressed that any perception that Egypt would ignore its important pursuits within the Nile is a false impression.
The letter reiterated Egypt’s dedication to worldwide legislation and its refusal to just accept Ethiopian makes an attempt to regulate water useful resource administration unilaterally.
Egypt has maintained engagement with worldwide organizations, together with the UN, implementing a restraint method.
This method, in keeping with the overseas ministry, stems from a need to foster cooperation and mutual advantages amongst Nile Basin nations moderately than an incapacity to defend nationwide pursuits.
Abdelatty criticized Ethiopia’s method, describing it as intransigent and politically motivated, geared toward delaying negotiations whereas implementing a fait accompli.
He accused Ethiopia of misrepresenting the scenario and rallying inner help by portraying Egypt as an adversary over shared sources.
The GERD, which holds a reservoir capability of 74 billion cubic meters, has been crammed in phases since 2020, elevating issues in Cairo and Khartoum about potential reductions in downstream water flows, particularly throughout drought durations.
Egypt, heavily reliant on the Nile, fears that the dam might exacerbate its water shortage, provided that its annual allocation of 55.5 billion cubic meters is already inadequate for its inhabitants of over 108 million.
President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has beforehand asserted that Egypt is not going to permit its water rights to be compromised, highlighting the vital nature of the Nile for the nation’s survival.
Negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the GERD began in early 2012, when the three nations, involved by the dam’s environmental and geopolitical implications, appointed a global panel of specialists to evaluate its impacts.
In March 2015, they formalized their collaboration with the signing of the Declaration of Rules (DoP) in Khartoum.
Since then, GERD has remained a central and protracted difficulty, with repeated rounds of talks,generally facilitated by third events just like the U.S. Treasury. Nevertheless, no legally binding settlement has been reached whilst building continued and energy era started.