Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: October 14 (EI) – The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is set to meet the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Russian capital Moscow to discuss issues surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Egyptian media reported on Sunday.
“If the incidents of 2011 hadn’t happened, we would have had a chance to reach an agreement on the dam,” Egypt Independent quoted al-Sisi as saying during the 31st Cultural Symposium of Egyptian Armed Forces on Sunday.
The Ethiopian government had recently announced that construction of the grand hydroelectric dam has presently reached over 68.5 percent completion status, according to Kifle Horo, GERD Project Manager.
The Egyptian president, who recalled a meeting between leaders of the three Nile-bounded countries – Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan – in the Sudanese capital Khartoum back in March 2015, said that “we agreed on 10 points (the Declaration of Principles), the most important of which are the method of filling and operating, in the context that this is very important.”
“We also agreed -if needed- to have a fourth mediator, and this is the path we move in since that time,” al-Sisi said.
“If you don’t watch out for our country, there will be more harm like this. We must move on with developing our country, though we will not reach all our goals overnight,” Sisi added.
Al-Sisi further called for calm, saying that “Egyptians deal with issues calmly, the issue is not solved like this (angrily), it is solved through dialogue and calm.”
“We have entered a phase of water poverty. The plan now is to recycle water through treatment plants. We need to provide water,” the Egyptian president added.
Negotiations among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan regarding the filling of Ethiopia’s grand dam have recently stalled amid the three parties’ failure to reach a comprehensive agreement on the dam’s construction.
Water and irrigation ministers of the three countries on Saturday last week had concluded on three-way negotiations in Khartoum to discuss on GERD.
The Egyptian government, which noted that the recent negotiations has reached a “dead end,” also on Saturday held Ethiopia responsible for the failure of the negotiations noting that the Ethiopian side “rejected all the proposals that would help Egypt avoid serious harms due to the construction of the dam,” Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Sibai, as saying on Saturday.
On October 6, the Ethiopian Prime Minister had also emphasized his country’s resolve to “reinforce its effort to make the ongoing trilateral dialogue a success. It also expects a similar commitment from the two downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan.”
“Ethiopia reiterates rights of all the 11 basin countries of the Nile to utilize Nile waters based on principles of equitable utilization and causing of no significant harm, which underlines the right of Ethiopia to develop its water resources to meet dev’t needs of its people,” Abiy said in a Twitter post on October 6.
The Ethiopian premier also stressed that his country “stands ready to resolve any differences and outstanding concerns by consultation among the three countries.”
The Ethiopian government had also on Tuesday accused Egypt’s latest proposal to have crossed the “red line” from the East African country’s perspective.
“The proposal crossed the red line drawn by Ethiopia,” state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) quoted officials at the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy as saying.
The ministry, which noted that Egypt’s new proposal regarding the filling of GERD “has remained a point of disagreement between the two countries,” also announced Ethiopia’s rejection of the proposal.
“Ethiopia rejected the proposal because the construction of the dam is an issue of national survival and sovereignty. The proposal also crossed the red line drawn by Ethiopia,” Tefera Beyen, Border and Cross-Border Rivers Affairs Advisor at the ministry.
The GERD project, located at close proximity to the Ethiopia-Sudan border about 500-km northwest of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa along the Blue Nile river (major tributary to the Nile river), once completed will be the largest dam in Africa – with 1,800-m long and 155-m high, according to the Italian contractor Salini Impregilo.
