CAIRO, May 21 (NNN-MENA) – Egypt has taken precautionary measures, to mitigate the potential impacts of the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said, yesterday.
“The state is committed to securing the interests and rights of the Egyptian people,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Ahmed Hafez.
Hafez reiterated Egypt’s rejection of any unilateral measures adopted by Ethiopia, regarding the dam, built on their shared Nile River.
The remarks came in response to a recent statement from the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, stressing that, it will go ahead with the second filling of the GERD, even without reaching a prior tripartite agreement with Egypt and Sudan, two downstream Nile Basin countries.
Hafez described Ethiopia’s upcoming unilateral filling of the GERD as “an irresponsible behaviour,” warning, it would expose the downstream countries to great risks.
Egypt and Sudan have been raising concerns about Ethiopia’s decision to unilaterally carry out the second filling of the GERD later this year, like what it did last year, without reaching a legally binding agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam.
Both Egypt and Sudan seek to form an international quartet that includes the African Union (AU), the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, to mediate in reaching the desired agreement.
Ethiopia started building the GERD in 2011, while Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-metre annual share of the Nile water. Sudan also raised similar concerns over the dam.
Over the past few years, tripartite talks on the rules of filling and operating the giant hydropower dam, whose total capacity is 74 billion cubic metres, have been fruitless, including those hosted earlier by Washington and the AU.– NNN-MENA
