Ethiopia says Egypt trying to keep ‘colonialera’ grip on Nile
CAIRO: Ethiopia has accused Egypt of trying to maintain its grip over the waters of the Nile with a proposal it says would imperil a giant hydropower dam under construction on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, in a growing diplomatic spat.
The comments highlight the difficulties finding a compromise between the two countries over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd). Two rounds of talks in the past month in Egypt and Sudan failed to produce progress.
Egypt relies on the Nile for up to 90% of its fresh water, and fears the dam, which is being built in Ethiopia close to the border with Sudan, will restrict already scarce supplies.
After talks had stalled, Egypt had submitted a proposal on August 1, including conditions over filling the reservoir, that Ethiopia rejected.
In an explanation for its decision, Ethiopia said the Egyptian plan was ‘‘onesided’’, flawed, and would ultimately hamper its economic development.
‘‘Egypt’s proposal is an effort to maintain a selfclaimed colonialerabased water allocation and veto power on any project in the Nile system,’’ the Foreign Ministry said in an October 1 note circulated to embassies.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.
The $US4 billion
($NZ6.33 billion) dam is designed to be the centrepiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, generating more than 6000MW, and is seen by Addis Ababa as a step towards redressing a historic imbalance in the exploitation of the Nile’s waters.
Ethiopia said at the start of the year that the dam should be fully operational by 2022.
Both sides agreed on a fivestage process for filling the reservoir behind the dam. Ethiopia says while it could fill the reservoir in two or three years, it made a concession by proposing a four to sevenyear process.
Egypt did not mention a timeframe for filling the dam’s reservoir in a diplomatic note last month that acknowledged Ethiopia’s rejection, but said it was requesting that the initial twoyear stage could be extended in conditions of ‘‘severe drought’’.
‘‘Meeting this demand is tantamount for Ethiopia to agreeing to make the filling of the Gerd subject to Egypt’s approval at any stage,’’ the Ethiopian note said.
‘‘Ethiopia, therefore, finds this ‘proposal’ a nonstarter on technical, economic, and national sovereignty grounds.’’
After the first stage of filling, Egypt’s proposal requires a minimum annual release of 40 billion cubic meters of water from the Gerd.
Ethiopia said such an amount was unrealistic in years of drought, and that in 1984 the flow had reduced to less than 30 bcm. It said Egypt wanted to ‘‘protect itself by putting the burden of coping with extreme drought years entirely on Ethiopia’’.
Ethiopia denied Cairo’s assertion that it had held up talks.
‘‘Ethiopia was forthcoming to the resumption of tripartite talks,’’ the note said. — Reuters