Egypt reiterated on Tuesday the necessity of reaching a tripartite agreement with Ethiopia and Sudan over the rules of filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) built on their shared Nile River, said the Egyptian foreign ministry.
Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister for African Affairs, Hamdi Sanad Loza, reiterated his country’s position in a meeting with African ambassadors in Cairo to update them with the developments of the recent tripartite negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on the GERD, said the ministry’s statement.
“The deputy foreign minister stressed the importance of reaching a fair and balanced agreement on filling and operating the GERD that fulfills the interests of the three countries and promotes regional integration between them,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said.
The Egyptian diplomat expressed appreciation for the role played by South Africa, the current chair of the African Union, to sponsor renewed talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan regarding the GERD.
The meeting came a day after Loza held a similar discussion with European ambassadors in Cairo to renew Egypt’s keenness on reaching an agreement over the dam.
Over the past few years, tripartite talks on the rules of filling and operating Ethiopia’s dam have been fruitless, amid Egyptian concerns that the GERD would affect Egypt’s 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of Nile water.
The two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly warned upstream Ethiopia against filling the reservoir without a prior tripartite agreement.
The 4-billion-dollar GERD is expected to produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa’s largest hydropower dam upon completion.
Filling the reservoir, whose total capacity is 74 billion cubic meters, may take several years. Egypt seeks to prolong the period of the filling process to avoid the possible impacts of water shortage, which is the main point of their talks.
