Egypt has accused Ethiopia of breaking a law over a contentious dam after receiving information that Ethiopia’s dam upstream on the Nile is currently filling up with water for the second year.
The hydroelectric dam has been a cause of conflict in the area for many years. Egypt, which gets almost all of its water from the Nile, sees it as a potential existential danger. Ethiopia claims it is critical to the country’s prosperity.
The dam has been the subject of decades of negotiations, but no final agreement has been reached. Recent African Union attempts have stalled, prompting Egypt and Sudan, who both sit downstream of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), to request that the UN Security Council takes up the matter.
They want specific promises on the filling schedule and the amount of water that the Gerd will release. Egypt stated that Ethiopia had told them that the second year of filling had begun. As the rainy season near the dam site begins, this has occurred.
Egypt’s irrigation minister, Mohammed Abdel Ati, said in a statement that he had sent a letter to his Ethiopian colleague alerting him of “Egypt’s categorical rejection of this unilateral measure.”According to the reports Sudan was also notified by Ethiopia.”They delivered a ridiculous letter,” Mustafa Hussein, the dam’s chief negotiator, is reported as saying. Ethiopia’s “unilateral step… a severe escalation -revealing Ethiopia’s evil intention,” said both countries’ foreign ministers, who are in New York ahead of Thursday’s Security Council meeting.
They went on to say that the second filing “violates international laws and conventions regarding the use of transboundary river resources.” Ethiopia, on the other hand, claims that it is not filling the dam on purpose.
“Filling and construction go hand in hand,” said a senior Ethiopian water ministry official. The Gerd is estimated to provide electricity to 65 million Ethiopians once it is completely operational. It will, according to the authorities, revolutionize people’s lives and the country’s progress. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry highlighted its displeasure with some of the diplomatic efforts surrounding the dam in a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.It accused the Arab League of interfering, which looks to be supporting Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia claims that this is an African Union problem, not an Arab League one.
