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Egypt’s Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel Aaty, said Ethiopia is uncompromising regarding the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and has withdrawn from most items agreed upon during the Washington talks.
During his speech to the House of Representatives on Sunday, Abdel Aaty said that US mediation helped create a draft agreement. He added that Egypt initialed the agreement, but Ethiopia rejected the draft.
“Egypt also responded to the statements of the Prime Minister of Sudan [Abdullah Hamdouk] initiative, and after that many tripartite meetings were held, “said the Egyptian minister,” Ethiopia moved away from most of the technical provisions in the way of Washington during those meetings, especially the technical points. “
Abdel Aaty said that four meetings were held under the auspices of the African Union (AU), in addition to five multi-party meetings that took place in the presence of the Irrigation and Foreign Ministers of the three parties involved, namely Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. He noted that “unfortunately, there is Ethiopian intransigence in this regard.”
Egypt receives about 70% of its water flow from the Blue Nile and Atbara rivers, both from the Ethiopian plateau and which merge in northern Sudan. The country is already short of water and, with Ethiopian intransigence, Cairo fears that the mega dam could affect its stake in water.
Talks between the parties involved on the GERD issue have failed to reach consensus on the disputed points over the filling and operation of the Ethiopian dam.
Abdel Aaty announced an urgent plan to counter the dangers of flooding, as projects worth EGP 10 billion have been implemented from 2016 to the present date.
He added that coastal protection projects in the Nile River delta have protected facilities, worth EGP 100 billion, that could have been exposed to the impacts of rising sea levels.
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