Egypt's Morsi, top officials mull response to Ethiopia dam move

Ahram Online, Thursday 30 May 2013

Egyptian officialdom awaits outcome of tripartite commission's report on Ethiopian dam project – expected on Sunday – before deciding on appropriate response

President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday met with Defence Minister Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and General Intelligence head Rafaat Shehata to discuss recent developments in Sinai and Egypt's position regarding Ethiopian plans to build a series of dams on the Nile.

According to presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy, meeting attendees discussed the options available to Egypt to deal with Ethiopia's 'Renaissance Dam' project and the project's potential impact on Egypt and its share of Nile water.

Fahmy also stated that talks were ongoing with Ethiopian officials in an effort to reach an agreement to the "mutual benefit" of both countries.

President Morsi, Fahmy said, had also discussed the issue with Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Omar and Water Resources Minister Mohamed Bahaa El-Din.

At a press conference held earlier on Thursday at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Fahmy said that the presidency would "not allow anyone to threaten Egypt's supply of Nile water."

Egypt supports development projects in Africa "as long as they don't affect Egypt's national security," the presidential spokesman stressed. He went on to note that President Morsi was keen to cooperate with "all African states" on water-sharing issues.

At a press conference convened following the meeting with the president, Bahaa El-Din declared that the Egypt had ruled out a military response in the event that Ethiopia insisted on going ahead with its dam project.

The minister added that a report on the dam project by an international tripartite commission – consisting of representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia – would be issued on Sunday.

If the report concluded that the Ethiopian dam project would adversely affect Egypt, Bahaa El-Din said that Egypt would prepare "a number of scenarios."

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Ethiopia to Accommodate Nations Concerned by Nile Dam

By William Davison & Salma El Wardany - May 30, 2013 12:42 PM GMT+0300.

Ethiopia’s government said it will try to accommodate nations concerned that their water supplies may be affected by the damming of the Blue Nile River, as Sudanese and Egyptian officials met to discuss the issue.
Ethiopia, source of one of the two tributaries of the Nile River, will start filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile at the “end of next year,” Deputy Prime Minister Debretsion Gebremichael said in an interview yesterday. The 80 billion-birr ($4.3 billion) hydropower project may begin generating of electricity next year and is set for completion in 2017, he said.

The schedule for filling the 74 billion cubic meter reservoir is expected to be a “major comsg4ncern” for the downstream nations of Egypt and Sudan, said Debretsion. Once completed, the power plant will be Africa’s largest with the capacity to generate 6,000 megawatts. Egypt, which relies on the Nile for almost all of its water, has historically opposed upstream projects on the world’s longest river.

“We are not selfish, we are not only looking at our national interest,” said Debretsion, who is also chairman of the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. “This is an international river and we will try our best to accommodate their benefits and their interests.”

Seeking Assurance

Sudanese Water Resources and Electricity Minister Osama Abdalla Mohamed al-Hassan arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, today to discuss the issue with Egyptian officials, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

Egypt’s government and public are concerned that the dam may decrease the flow of the Nile, Mohamed Edrees, Egypt’s ambassador to Ethiopia, said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa.

“Our concern is for it not to affect our water security, to harm the water coming to Egypt,” he said. “How to do it effectively on the ground and how to implement it, this is something to be left to the technicians to discuss and agree on.”

The dam, which will be twice the size of Singapore, will be full in “five to six years,” Ethiopian Water and Energy Minister Alemayehu Tegenu said at a ceremony to celebrate the diversion of the river yesterday in Guba, 454 kilometers (282 kilometers) northwest of Addis Ababa. “We won’t fill the reservoir at one go,” he said.

‘Broad Understanding’

Sudan’s government has had consultations with Ethiopia and Egypt and there is a “broad understanding on the issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abu-Bakr al-Siddiq said in a phone interview today from Khartoum, the capital.

“We don’t have any problem with what the Ethiopians have done,” he said. Edrees said the diversion has no “direct implication” as it doesn’t alter the flow of the river.

A technical committee made up of neutral experts and four representatives each from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt is expected to deliver a report on the project in a “few days,” Edrees said.

“Actual dam construction” can start after the diversion was carried out a “few days ago,” said Debretsion. The altering of the course was a milestone in the project as “we managed to direct Abay on our own side,” Alemayehu said, using the Amharic name for the Nile.

Members of the Ethiopian public have bought bonds worth more than 5 billion birr so far to pay for the dam, which will be financed from domestic sources only, Bereket Simon, who heads a fund-raising council for the project, said in an interview at the site yesterday.