While Egypt is reviewing its plan to manage water amid potential flood risks, the North African nation will participate on Saturday in a new round of talks concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Egyptian Minister of Water Resources, Dr. Hani Sweilem, said a new round of Renaissance Dam negotiations will be held in Addis Ababa on December 16, 17, and 18 between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
The talks aim to reach a “legal” agreement over operating the dam following the third round of negotiations that ended in Cairo last October.
In July, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed agreed to initiate urgent negotiations to finalize an agreement between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on the filling of the GERD and the rules of its operations.
The two leaders said they would make all the necessary efforts to finalize the agreement in four months.
Three rounds of negotiations were held in Cairo and Addis Ababa since then, but failed to achieve any progress.
An earlier statement by Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said the “Ethiopian intransigence” was behind the failure of the GERD talks, but expressed hope that Addis Ababa will show political will and seriousness to reach a legally binding agreement to fill and operate the dam.
Egyptian Professor of Public International Law, Secretary General of The International Committee for The Defense of Water resources, Mohamed Mahran told Asharq Al-Awsat that the upcoming negotiations represent a real opportunity to resolve the outstanding differences between the three countries and to reach a legally binding agreement that takes into account the water rights of Egypt and Sudan.
Mahran said the worsening economic crisis in Ethiopia could push Addis Ababa to back down from “its rigid positions towards the Renaissance Dam file.”
But at the same time, he warned against “the escalation of the crisis and failure to reach a solution,” stressing that the negotiations are the last chance to avoid a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.
Egypt and Sudan demand a binding legal agreement regulating the filling and operating of the dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.
The dam could reduce water supplies to the two countries and cause other environmental and economic damages.
Ethiopia defends its right to development and generates the electricity its people need.
In September, Addis Ababa said it had completed the fourth and final phase of filling a reservoir for its planned massive hydroelectric power plant on the Blue Nile.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources, Dr. Hani Sweilem, said on Friday that his ministry is monitoring the spillways of streams and valleys to ensure their readiness to receive flood water.
He said the work is particularly conducted in North and South Sinai, Matrouh, and Upper Egypt, where the spillways and valleys are located.
Egypt’s Ministry of Irrigation has already prepared a plan to manage water in Egypt till the year 2037 with investments of more than $50 million.
